The organisation responsible for setting council tax bands in Lanarkshire has issued a warning to residents this week about a new scam.

A number of householders across North Lanarkshire have told the Lanarkshire Valuation Joint Board they have received unsolicited telephone calls claiming to be from a 'consumer care bureau' and advising that a substantial council tax refund is due to them.

The consumer is told that this company will work on their behalf to pursue a case for placing their property in a lower council tax band, which will yield a rebate worth thousands of pounds. At this stage bank details are requested to allow the 'refund' to be paid directly.

Divisional Trading Standards Officer at South Lanarkshire Council, David Templeton, said: "We want to put the message out and ensure that residents are very aware of this scam. The request for bank details should immediately set alarm bells ringing. No such 'revaluations' have taken place and none are planned. Anyone who is taken in by this is putting themselves at risk of having money taken from their bank accounts.

"Thankfully, so far, none of the cases reported to us have handed over bank details but we are concerned that this has not been the case across the board. We would urge anyone who thinks they might have been targeted by the scam to get in touch straight away. Our enquiries into who is behind this are ongoing and the more information we have, the better our chances of tracking down those responsible and taking action against them."

The Assessor for Lanarkshire, Eddie Duffy, added: "There is a formal appeal procedure for challenging the council tax banding of a house and there are only limited circumstances in which such an appeal would be legally valid. There is no automatic or guaranteed reduction as a result of such an appeal and it is rare that an original band is reduced. No company or individual can therefore give a guarantee that they will get the band of your house reduced."