A COMMUNITY councillor from Selkirk has slammed local police for failing to react to a banking phone scam.

Alasdaire Lockhart received a call towards the end of February from a man claiming to be from his bank's fraud department.

The bogus caller said that the 71-year-old's account had been compromised with money being paid out to PC World.

The retired university administrator was told that another fraud investigator from the Royal Bank of Scotland would call back the following day to sort out the problem.

Suspecting he was being targeted by fraudsters, Mr Lockhart went to Galashiels Police Station on the same day (Monday, February 20) to report what had happened - but he insists weren't interested.

He said: "I went into Galashiels Police Station to report what had happened and they said it wasn't their problem as I lived in Selkirk.

"It was if they didn't want to know.

"They could have arranged for my call to be intercepted the following day and trace where these people are calling from.

"These people did call back the following day like they said they would and I just told them where to go.

"For me this was a wasted opportunity to catch these people."

Mr Lockhart reported the bogus call to the Royal Bank of Scotland after being turned away at Galashiels Police Station.

The Border Telegraph reported just last week how an 86-year-old man from Peebles was swindled out of his £20,000 life-savings in a similar telephone scam.

He had been contacted on the Friday by a scammer claiming his account had been compromised.

After convincing the pensioner to transfer funds into a 'secure holding account' they called back three days later on the Monday and talked him into moving more money into the 'safe' account.

Last month a 79-year-old Kelso woman's bank account was also raided when she was conned over the phone in a similar scam.

And the bogus callers are continuing to target the elderly every day with similar attempts to raid their savings.

Over the past year Police Scotland's Organised Crime Unit has issued several warnings not to disclose bank details over the phone.

Selkirk community policeman Conal McEwan said: "I don't understand why the officer in Galashiels didn't take details of this incident.

"This type of crime is more an intelligence matter than anything else but it should still have been logged.

"As long as Mr Lockhart hasn't been defrauded - that is our main concern."