Police blitz targets rip-off rogue tradesmen - WATCH

The Express & Star joined dozens of police patrols who were out trawling neighbourhoods for dodgy doorstep callers deliberately overcharging for shoddy work.

We also pitched up roadside as officers set up checkpoints on some of the county's busiest routes stopping suspicious drivers who fit the rogue trader profile.

The operation also aimed to raise awareness among residents who are increasingly falling victim to distraction burglars that prey on the elderly by pretending to offer a service while accomplices sneak in and raid properties on the hunt for cash and jewellery.

In Cannock things got under way at the town's police station from 9am on Wednesday. We joined around a dozen officers in a conference room for a briefing on the operation led by Sergeant Lee Hardy, while fellow policing teams in Wombourne and Codsall tuned in via a video link.

The day was the culmination of intelligence gathering on known offenders and commonly targeted streets.

While armed response teams were also on hand in case officers inadvertently came across suspected drug dealers whilst pulling over motorists.

We sat alongside a police officer, and Staffordshire County Council Trading Standards official, on the search for dodgy traders operating in Cannock Chase.

But this was not a day for banging down doors and hasty raids. The unscrupulous workers which the operation was aimed at rooting out are crafty operatives and evidently do not stand out to the untrained eye.

A substantial part of their scam is in the groundwork laid to appear as 'legitimate' as possible. Therefore we were instructed to look out for relatively new vans with company logos and telephone numbers emblazoned on the side - often starting in 0800.

And neither was this a typical police jaunt down 'council estate' roads along rows of terraced houses typically - albeit unfairly - associated with crime and anti-social behaviour.

Instead officers were told to target usually sleepy and isolated residential streets, mostly affluent or populated by bungalows, where elderly people were seen as an easy target for conmen.

On a sun-drenched morning it did not take long to come across the first suspect.