POLICE swooped on a family home after a child mistook a Herefordshire window cleaner and his team for a gang of burglars and the family called 999.

Vince Monte, of Bromyard, owner of Squeeky Cleanz, said he and his two colleagues had just completed the job when the homeowner came outside and accused them of leaving her child “petrified”.

The customer had apparently called the police after arriving home to discover her young son believed intruders were at the home.

Two officers in two patrol cars subsequently arrived at the home.

Mr Monte, 30, said it was a “complete waste” of police time as they spent 45 minutes doing background checks on him and his employees.

He says officers told him they had to carry out the checks themselves due to low staffing at the control room.

He said: "This was all down to the customer not having the decency to check who was in her garden before calling the police.

“With the Government the way it is, and lack of police force, is this really what we need?

“If you book a window cleaner they will come, not really rocket science.

“Safe to say we won’t be going back to that customer after she blamed myself for her being a nuisance to the police. Just think before wasting time.”

Mr Monte said he had rang the doorbell and knocked on the door of the home in Upton-upon-Severn after arriving at around 11am on Wednesday, but there was no answer.

“There was somebody in the house, so we rang the bell, one of those that’s connected to the phone, and I banged on the door a couple of times. There was no answer, but someone was in there.

“It’s quite normal they don’t answer the door, but that’s their prerogative. I always give the door a knock out of courtesy.”

He said he could see there was a child in the house, who he thought was around 11 years, although he was later told he was 15.

It is believed the homeowner returned midway through the team completing the 20-minute job.

He said: "She came bouncing out, shouting, saying her son was petrified.

“I saw the child through the window, and he was fine, but by the time I’d finished he was apparently petrified.”

Mr Monte added: “She called the police, she was probably embarrassed. "Instead of saying thank you for cleaning the windows, she said she wouldn’t pay and told me to eff off – all while the police were standing there.”

Mr Monte, who started his window cleaning business about four years ago, praised the officers’ attitude and said they were “very understanding” despite the circumstances.

He said: “They had to clear up that she was happy we weren’t burgling and then came to speak to us to check we weren’t wanted for anything and to carry out card checks.”

Mr Monte said the officers then looked at the messages sent between him and the customer, who he said had signed up for monthly cleans in March after seeing an advert on Facebook.

He claims she kept cancelling the cleaning appointments each month but, after he didn't hear from her, he carried on with the job this week.

Mr Monte charges £8 for a full clean but said this job was priced at £12 because the windows hadn’t been cleaned for so long.

He has sent out an invoice for the work.

Mr Monte said it wasn't the first time a homeowner had called police.

He said three years ago a different woman had organised for him to clean the windows but hadn’t told her husband, who spotted him on CCTV while at work and called the police.

He added: “Please just check before wasting our time and the police’s time. It’s a lot of resources wasted because of all the checks that have to be done and the loss of income for us.”