A CITIZENS' advice service has launched a campaign to stamp out rogue traders and win better rights for consumers.

Hambleton Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) says the threat of unscrupulous traders is growing, and urges local people to back its calls for Government action.

CAB bosses are asking people to write to their MP, signing a postcard, which bears the message, "Please protect me from sharks".

Their aim is to encourage MPs to make sure improved consumer protection is top of the Government's agenda for action, when Parliament resumes later this month.

Hambleton bureau manager Carol Barber said the organisation had heard of dozens of examples of rogue traders conning elderly and vulnerable people.

"Unscrupulous traders are getting away with preying on consumers and ripping them off," she said.

"Every day, we see people who have been conned, threatened and harassed by debt collectors, or who have lost money in home-working scams that don't deliver.

"Often they are elderly or on low incomes. The law needs changing urgently to put a stop to rogue trading of this kind."

She said there had been several recent cases of sharp practice, involving collection agencies. One example involved a collector retaining a client's pension book as security.

She said: "These practices usually involve clients on a low income, without any alternative for reasonable credit agreements.

"I hope as many people as possible will send in a card, so the Government will see how strongly people feel about this."

The postcard petition is part of a joint campaign by the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux and the National Consumer Council, to fight for a Bill giving greater consumer protection to be included in the next session of Parliament.

The campaign cards are available free from Hambleton CAB, in South Parade, Northallerton.