Police chiefs urge people in Staffordshire to be vigilant over 'national trend' of bogus callers offering Covid-19 vaccine

Bosses said they were aware of a "national trend" of fake officials targeting vulnerable people in a bid to gain entry to their homes.

Senior officers from Staffordshire Police said there had been no reported incidents in the county but urged families to be wary.

It comes as vaccines are set to be further rolled out across the country, with the first patient vaccinated at Coventry on Tuesday.

Chief Inspector Rob Hessell, from the force, said: "We would always advise not to let anyone into your property who has turned up unannounced.

"With such incidents perpetrators tend to target vulnerable people and we would not want such incidents in our county.

"I would like to thank the vast majority of the public who are adhering to the current restrictions and are supportive of our efforts in working towards bringing normality back to Staffordshire."

It comes as a National Crime Agency (NCA) boss said vaccine fraud was the latest "emerging threat" following on from criminals carrying out personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand sanisiter scams.

Speaking at a webinar held by the Resilience First group, Graeme Biggar, director general of the NCA's National Economic Crime, said the pandemic brought about a "hook" and an opportunity for fraudsters.

Mr Biggar said: "The new emerging threat will be around vaccine fraud. We haven't seen much of that yet, but we absolutely expect – when vaccines begin to roll-out – that there will be people offering fake vaccines, so we're trying to get ahead of that trend now."

A spokesman for West Midlands Police confirmed there had been no reports of any incidents across the region.