A leading children's charity has reassured the public that doorstep fundraisers are not bogus but are authorised to collect money for it.

In a letter to this newspaper, Scott Burns, of Epsom, said: "I'd just like to warn anyone in the West Ewell area, or in fact any area around Epsom of callers at the door claiming to be collecting on behalf of The Children's Trust.

"We had one of these at the door on Saturday evening.

"My partner volunteers for the trust in the Epsom shop and the trust do not doorstep canvas for anything.

"This is obviously a scam and we called the police who located some of the people."

But Jess Thomas, senior individual giving manager at the trust, said Mr Burns had got his wires crossed.

She said she had contacted Surrey Police and they had received a call about a doorstep collector.

But when they checked his credentials police found nothing to be wrong and took no further action. 

Ms Thomas said: "The person made a complaint to the police. 

"The police spoke to one of the fundraisers, who showed the police his ID and there were no problems."

She said the fundraisers, who are graduates, have been employed by the trust in the past few weeks through an agency called Champions, which made door-to-door visits during the Easter holidays and will be doing the same throughout the Summer holidays. 

The charity used the same company for the task last year.

Ms Thomas added: "They are fundraising door-to-door on behalf of The Children's Trust, getting people to sign-up to a direct debit scheme. 

"All of the fundraisers have been trained by the charity personally.  It is all legitimate."

Rob Wood, marketing and fundraising manager at the trust, added: "We have a team of fundraisers who are going door to door in areas in the south east such as Epsom and Ewell to raise awareness of our work.

"They are asking if people would like to become a regular donor to support our work with children with brain injury.

"These regular donations are really important to us because they are a source of income we can rely on and help us plan services and developments for the future in confidence.

"All our fundraisers wear a Children’s Trust t-shirt and ID badge."