Blue Badge holders are being told to watch out for a fraudster pretending to be a parking attendant to scam them out of money.

Richmond Council issued the warning after receiving multiple reports that a man, dressed like a real parking warden, is going up to badge holders and telling them they need to register their vehicles at a parking machine.

He then tells them to put their card into a machine and enter their PIN; the machine then “swallows” the card and he encourages the victim to leave, meaning he then has both the card and PIN.

One victim had £3,000 taken out of her account after the scam.

Richmond Council’s cabinet member for community safety, Cllr Liz Jaeger, said: “Our parking enforcement officers will be keeping a close eye out for this man, and we have alerted the local Safer Neighbourhood Teams so that the police can help us track him down.

“In the meantime, I would urge everyone to be on their guard.”