A group of bogus auctioneers offering empty packages disguised as cut-price electrical goods got more than they bargained for during a visit to Plumstead last week - when they were raided by trading standards officers.

Punters had been lured to the June 7 event, billed as a "bankrupt and liquidation stock clearance sale", with claims of ex-catalogue stock from big high street names like Argos and Freemans.

Flyers for the event, held at Plumstead Common Working Men's Club in Kirkham Street, promised £399 iPhones for just £60 and high-spec flat screen TVs for only £40.

But when punters bid for the "bargains", they were handed packages bound tightly with brown tape that did not contain the goods they'd paid for.

And the sale was over after an hour, when trading standards officers moved in, confiscating all the stock.

Wendy Grey, the club's finance chairman, said the booking had been pre-arranged with Greenwich Council and the police in order to catch the crooks red-handed.

Ms Grey said: "These auctions have been held elsewhere and here previously - but they're a con.

"When I was asked to take the booking before the auction, I spoke to trading standards who told us to take it.”

She explained: "They've been working in this area over the past year but they've never been able to catch them in the act until now."

Ms Grey added: "I hope a lot more people won't be taken advantage of now."

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Angela Grenville, 47, said she had been duped by a similar event at the club last year, buying what was meant to be a phone and another electronic item.

She explained: “They tell you not to open it until later. Inside one of the packages was a watch that didn’t work. There was a cheap men’s shaver in the other one.

“By the time we got back there they’d already cleared out.”

She added: “I felt so stupid. When people say it’s too good to be true they’re right.”

A spokesman for Greenwich Council said: “A number of items being offered for sale were removed by trading standards officers, and these items are now subject to further investigation.

“We can confirm that the sale was not organised by the working men’s club itself.  Given the on-going nature of the investigation, we are currently unable to provide further details at this stage.”