Clothing banks have appeared in car parks across Wiltshire in a shocking new scam.

Criminals have dumped the containers in areas like Urchfont and Bishops Cannings throughout the last week causing confusion for local people.

Wiltshire Council have warned people to be vigilant against the scammers - who "prey on people’s generosity by falsely claiming to be collecting clothes on behalf of charities."

In Urchfont, near Devizes, a rogue clothing bank appeared outside the village hall to the bemusement of the manager.

Locals people have since reported that a lorry was seen passing through earlier this month carrying the container.

Another one appeared in the village hall car park in Bishops Cannings. The parish council quickly advised residents that it was a suspected scam.

It had no markings detailing ownership or charity concerned.

The council posted on Facebook that the police and council had been informed and a day later it had vanished.

The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald: The bin dumped in Bishops CanningsThe bin dumped in Bishops Cannings

Chairman Eric Clark explained: “Although we notified the police, they advised us to treat the matter as fly tipping and did not record it as a crime as far as I’m aware.”

“The bin was removed within 24 hours of our threat to dispose of it.

“The whole episode was very odd, and the people involved behaved in a quite suspicious way.”

A Wiltshire Council spokeswoman confirmed they had received reports of the clothing bank scam.

She said: “Unfortunately we are aware of scammers preying on people’s generosity by falsely claiming to be collecting clothes on behalf of charities and this includes instances where clothing banks have been installed without the permission of the landowner.

"Unfortunately the reality is that donations will be sold for profit with anything left over likely to be fly tipped.

“Often the banks may feature the name of a legitimate charity, sometimes a fake charity and on occasion they will simply be blank.”

The council’s trading standards team has urged people to beware of the scams and for village and town councils to check firstly, that any clothing banks in their area have permission to be there and secondly that they do not falsely claim to be collecting for a charity.

Any unexpected or suspicious clothing banks can be reported to Trading Standards via tradingstandards@wiltshire.gov.uk