Local landlords have been warned to watch out for 'spoof' tenants who are ripping apart houses and using them to cultivate drugs. These individuals are taking advantage of the inexperience of the growing number of reluctant landlords who are being forced to let their house because of the slowing housing market. Once they obtain the tenancy, these professional criminal gangs take the interior of the house apart and can cause tens of thousands of pounds of damage. Landlords have been warned to thoroughly check the references of any potential tenants  For rooms and houses to let click here

Becks Cottage

Do you have any news or photos of Becks Cottage in Little Anne which sadly burnt down recently? If so, please contact Jonny Formby. Jonny used to live at the cottage and would like to here to hear from you. Contact him by clicking here.

Watchout for Hackers

Dave Treadwell of Andover Kitchen Fitters had a shock when he went to update his website. " I thought something was a bit odd because I usually get a steady stream of new enquiries from my website but this suddenly stopped. I didn't bother too much because a lot of the work I get is from referrals but I decided to have a look at the site and update it. As soon as I logged in I could see the problem; I'd been hijacked by some hackers; it was half in Arabic and half in English. The site was Googling with a string of four letter words! I've contacted the hosting company I use  and they said that hackers are just getting more and more sophisticated. I guess the message is to keep checking your website regularly! Click the link on the right to see Dave's new site. Remember if you have any news or local business announcements, email Andover Times and we can give you FREE publicity.