Companies dealing in a range of trades, including property maintenance and vehicle servicing, will be listed on a database, handled by outside organisation Referenceline, that measures business performance by customer referral.

The council’s head of environmental health and trading standards, Albert Oswald, said bogus traders were a particular area of concern.

“That is where consumers are cold-called and tricked into paying large sums of money for often very shoddy goods or services,” he said.

“Property maintenance covers a high proportion of cases and these are almost always high-value cases with consumers parting with sums in excess of £1000.

“If victims are from vulnerable groups, then the result is often distress as well as financial loss.”

Mr Oswald said the link between bogus workmen and distraction burglary was of even more concern, with vulnerable people being targeted by thieves.

He has recommended the introduction of a trusted trader business partnership scheme in Dundee to help both consumers looking for services and companies willing to provide them in an honest and fair fashion.

Customers would rate the service and give written references, which would be collated by Referenceline and made available to prospective customers. Only local firms would be eligible to join the scheme, which would be managed by the council’s trading standards section.

Mr Oswald said the scheme should have the effect of reducing the business available to itinerant and bogus traders, thereby improving community safety in terms of doorstep selling and distraction burglary.

Councillor Julie Sturrock, convener of the environmental services and sustainability committee, said, “We are absolutely determined that Dundee residents should not suffer from crime on their own doorstep, and this seems a very simple way of driving out the bad by promoting good practice.

“Local businesses will also benefit because membership of the scheme will mean that they will have a better profile and will not be associated with the type of rogue traders who give everyone a bad name.”