EVERYONE knows the scenario. You're in a pub or club, feeling mellow and enjoying the atmosphere, when someone selling roses for "charity" approaches you.

The result, more often than not, is that you part with your hard-earned cash without further ado.

Now, local people are being warned to question all collectors more closely after a bogus group toured Bolton pubs and clubs, wrongly claiming that they were working for the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity.

It's sad that unscrupulous types prey on the kindness of local people like this. But it's worth being vigilant, to ensure that charity cash does find its way to genuine charities.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.