HOUSEHOLDERS are being warned to ignore a holiday competition claim form after an investigation was launched by trading standards officers.

The letter has been put through doors at homes across South Bucks and claims that if people who receive the form send £29.50 to an address provided, they will receive a holiday in Spain, Portugal or the Canary Islands.

But trading standards officers fear it is a con and are alerting residents.

Fay Harris, of Cotswold Way, High Wycombe, was one householder nearly taken in by the claim.

She said: "It all read very nicely and the form looked real."

She said: "If my wages had gone in when I received the form I would have sent it off there and then. I'm a single parent with three children at home and it is really tempting for people like me.

"I was just about send my money off when my eldest daughter came and told me that she thought I should check it out first. I phoned trading standards and they told me it was bogus. It seems a very cruel thing to do."

A spokesman for Buckinghamshire Trading Standards said they had received a number of inquiries from across the region regarding the forms.

He said: "Our advice to people who have called us about this is don't send them money. We understand that trading standards in Bournemouth have looked into this in some depth but have not been able to find out who is sending the forms.

"Anyone who asks you to send money in this way is likely to be operating a scam and the fact we can't find out who is sending them reinforces that view. If people send this money off they are likely to lose it."