CONMEN posing as rat catchers persuaded a man with learning difficulties to hand over £7,000 as payment for "de-infesting" his house, a court heard.

Richard Melhuish is alleged to have been one of four men who visited 48-year-old Robert Boulter at his home in Howard Street, East Oxford.

They said work had to be carried out to get rid of a supposed rat infestation.

Mr Boulter paid £2,000 to the group and had withdrawn an additional £5,000 for them before they were caught by police.

Melhuish, 24, from Aldermaston, near Reading, denies two counts of fraud by false representation.

Prosecutor Neil Moore told Oxford Crown Court that the men had visited Mr Boulter's house on March 23.

They claimed to be pest controllers and inspected his house.

The men said there were rat droppings in one of the bedrooms, but they could get rid of the rodents for £2,000.

Mr Boulter withdrew the cash from a bank and gave it to them.

The jury heard the men returned the next day wearing overalls, gloves and masks and carrying a vacuum cleaner to complete their "work".

Once they had cleaned the bedroom, they told Mr Boulter he must pay them £5,000 for the service. He went to the bank, while they waited in his house.

Mr Moore said a cashier at the bank became suspicious when Mr Boulter tried to withdraw the money and suggested he call police before handing it over.

Police officers accompanied Mr Boulter back home and found Melhuish and another man in the sitting room. They were later arrested.

Mr Moore said a genuine pest controller inspected the house and found there was no evidence of a rat infestation and the droppings found had been planted.

The court also heard a genuine service would charge about £200 to de-infest a house.

Mr Moore said: "He (Mr Boulter) has learning difficulties and is a man with real difficulties with the use of language.

"This of course makes him extremely vulnerable to attacks of this sort and no doubt is the reason he went along with paying what many of us would think is a ridiculous amount of money to have a house disinfected of rats."

He said Melhuish was not the man who knocked on the door originally, or who asked for the money, but was part of the group. Mr Moore said the men had called at several houses in Howard Street, before going to Mr Boulter's house.

The case continues.