Police have warned residents to be vigilant after bogus builders targeted two homes.

Dave Dinehart, 83, of Pinkham Mansions, Chiswick, said a man pretending to be a council official claimed he was carrying out work in the flats above, and asked if he could come in to check for damage.

But the plucky pensioner soon realised he was talking “a load of rubbish” and chucked him out.

Mr Dinehart said: “He kept on insisting and I said ‘who are you and where’s your identification?’, which he hadn’t got.

“I said ‘you’re talking rubbish, whatever you do up there it’s not going to affect my electricity or my water’.

“I took him to the front door and I put him out.

“Then I phoned the police, who were down here within an hour-and-a-half to check for fingerprints.

“I hadn’t seen him touch much because I was watching his hands in case he pinched something.

“I think he was a little surprised that someone as old as me still had all their marbles.”

Police said the suspect was white, in his late teens or early 20s with short mousy brown hair, of slim build and wore a blue and white-striped polo shirt and khaki trousers.

Dodgy builders also targeted a woman in Hounslow Road, Hanworth, the following day, ripping the fascia from her house without asking permission before demanding £18,000 for replacements.

The woman had left the three men to inspect her guttering for about an hour and returned to find the damage.

Neighbours stepped in and the builders fled.

They were white, aged about 40 years old, 5ft 11in, with cropped mousy brown hair and of a stocky build.

Inspector Manpreet Bains, of Hounslow police, said: “Ask for identification before you let anyone in to your house. If you are not happy, do not let them into your house – use the door chain and keep them out.”

Anyone with information should contact Hounslow police on 020 8247 6160, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.