LANCASHIRE residents are more at risk of being duped by fraudsters than ever before, according to the county’s trading standards chief who is retiring after 42 years.

Jim Potts has been Lancashire County Council’s ‘scambuster’ since 1986, leading campaigns to change the law and warning people about everything from fake Viagra to dodgy builders.

The 60-year-old, who lives in Chorley, tomorrow calls time on his trading standards career.

He has led the fight against foot and mouth disease; be threatened by a notorious Birmingham criminal with a gun; and chased crooks who scammed a pensioner out of £80,000 life savings.

Despite his best efforts, Mr Potts said the threat from online crooks now made scams even more of a danger for citizens.

He said: “The internet has opened up a whole new world of criminality, like counterfeit goods and unsafe medical treatments.

“Lancashire is now open to the world for all these things and it’s worse than ever before.”

His early work at Crewe council - the smallest in the country at the time - in the late 1960s mainly involved weights and measures, and also saw him break up fist fights between traders at the town’s market.

Now Mr Potts said he would like to see tougher controls on doorstep salesman, who often target elderly and vulnerable people, and bogus offers of lottery winnings and multimillion pound inheritances.

He said the county’s trading service was now in the ‘premier league’ on a national level, dealing with 40,000 new consumer problems each year and regulating more than 30,000 businesses.

Alongside his council work, Mr Potts was the first trading standards officer to appear on the Watchdog programme and he was the regular consumer expert on the BBC's Gloria Hunniford programme.

He also regularly hosted phone-ins on Radio Lancashire.

His achievements at Lancashire include campaigning for a change in the law on the safety of watersports and the banning of dangerous and nuisance fireworks.

And he even handled complaints that local football matches were of such a poor standard they could not be described as ‘entertainment’.

He added: “I've been incredibly lucky to have led on so many interesting investigations.

"I am sad to be going, but will be keeping my eyes out for scams and will always be vigilant.”

Jo Turton, the council’s executive director for the environment, paid tribute to her colleague, saying he would ‘leave a huge legacy in Lancashire’.

Mr Potts will be replaced by Paul Noone, who has been promoted from deputy.