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Police are hunting a sick bogus caller who has been “selling” poppies on people’s doorsteps in Clare.

Pensioner Gladys Parker has been selling poppies for the past 15 years, but this year found that someone had beaten her to it before her poppies had even been delivered.

Sheila Martin, who has been a poppy organiser for the village of Clare near Haverill for 40 years, along with her daughter Elaine, called the police after a young man came to her door selling poppies on October 26.

He ran off after being challenged about why he was selling poppies before October 29 and why Mrs Parker was not doing the collection. It is believed the man had called at around 27 homes, telling people Mrs Parker was unwell and he was covering the round for his elderly.
disabled mother who lived in Clare.

‘I was fuming about it, Gladys has been collecting in this road for years. I spoke to my neighbour and he told her he was collecting because Gladys wasn’t very well.

‘I think it is terrible, it is one of the collections which is closest to people’s hearts. One child emptied out his entire moneybox for the collection,” Mrs Martin said.

Mrs Parker, whose late husband Stanley was a veteran of the last war, said when she went to collect on Saturday people told her a young man had already been round. She was so upset by the incident, Mrs Parker was not sure if she would continue collecting next year.

“It was wicked. I was really mad when I found out about it.” Mrs Parker said.
“People have been very supportive and have given me more money, but I was very upset about it. I did not see him, he did not come to my house.”

A spokesman for Essex Police confirmed that they were investigating the incident and that Suffolk Police had been warning people in Clare about it.

He advised people to make sure collectors had proper ID and to challenge them if it was not the usual person.

“We do get bogus charity collections all the time, but not often poppy collections. Most people would consider it to be the lowest of the low, but it does happen from time to time. As far as we know the collection box and the poppies were not stolen locally,” the spokesman said.