As the days get a little longer and brighter our thoughts may start coming around to getting the garden in shape, cleaning paths, gutters, pruning trees or removing rubbish from the garden.

With that also comes the callers to our door of people who are conveniently ‘doing a job for one of our neighbours’ and would be willing to give us a good price.

We have had our first set of visits from such crews in the area this week.  While some of them may be genuine, this is also a very common ploy used by criminals to call to houses to get a feel for who is around, to get access to properties and to see whether there is something worth returning for at a later stage.

The advice from the Gardaí in these cases is not to engage with folks who call to your door unless they are personally known to you.     Even if they are working for one of your neighbours, do not assume that they are known to them personally either.

With some of these folks in the area I would remind people to be extra vigilant in the coming weeks and report any suspicious activity to the Gardaí in Blanchardstown on 01 6667000.