THE Government is being urged to bring in laws to clamp down on the ever-growing number of dodgy prize competitions after a North pensioner lost her life savings.

Households are flooded with bogus lotteries and draws daily, promising prizes that can be worth tens of thousands of pounds.

But trading standards chiefs said the people behind the cons would be left high and dry if a straightforward prize claim limit was introduced.

Councillor Carl Les, North Yorkshire County Council's executive member for trading standards, said: "They make their money from people who ring premium rate lines or send off cash to claim their prizes.

"Usually the 'prize' never arrives, and on the rare occasion it does, it is worth far less than the consumer paid to get it.

"We will be making representations to the responsible Minister for Gambling at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport asking for a limit to be imposed."

The scale of the problem was exposed earlier this year when the family of a 90-year-old woman from North Yorkshire discovered she had been registering for and ringing up for prize wins for more than a decade, slowly whittling away her savings.

It was one of the worst such cases discovered and it is estimated she spent about £300,000 over 12 years.

In her home, the family found thousands of prize draw notifications and other junk mail -enough to fill 16 sacks.

Trading standards experts said the burgeoning prize competition trade is already worth an estimated £500m and rising.

Many meet legal requirements, but there are many that do not.

Coun Les said: "Bogus prize competitions are now probably the number one source of complaint to trading standards services across the UK."

He said consumers should never send money or respond to claims that they have won a prize in a competition they never entered, saying they were always a con.

A new Gambling Bill has recently been proposed, and a new Gambling Commission established, but it does not deal with prize competitions.

The head of North Yorkshire trading standards team, Graham Venn, said: "We welcome any measures which hinder this crooked practice, but are concerned about some loopholes we have identified in the proposals.

"We accept that the Bill is not really intended to cover prize draws and that is the problem -there is no other legislation to control these.

"We believe that the scope of the Bill should be widened to give protection to consumers from bogus prize competitions."