A suspected fraudster is carrying out unauthorised door to door cash collections in the name of the beleaguered Pill Millennium Centre.

The secretary of Pill Millennium Trust says she is "absolutely devastated" after it emerged someone has been making suspected bogus collections for the centre.

Tracey Holyoake said she finds it frustrating that all their hard work to keep the centre running could be destroyed in minutes after police told the trust someone has been knocking on doors claiming to be collecting for the centre.

This is despite the trust not authorising anyone to carry out collections door to door and no-one coming forward with any funds.

Ms Holyoake said: "The community of Pill struggles enough. We work so hard to bring people into the centre and the fact that someone could destroy that in two minutes is frustrating."

A message on the centre's Facebook page warns: "Gwent police have had reports of a woman going door to door in the area claiming to be collecting money on behalf of the Pill Mill. Please note that we do not collect money in this way. If anyone comes to your door claiming to be collecting on our behalf they are lying and you should contact the police."

Pill Millennium Centre closed in January due to it no longer having the funds to operate but was reopened a week later thanks to members of the community including Ms Holyoake taking over the running of the trust which operates the centre.

They have since worked tirelessly to raise £18,000 in the past three months, £8,000 of which was used to pay off an overdraft at the centre while around £4,500 was used to make redundancy payments from when the centre closed.

This money was raised through events at the centre as well as fundraisers such as bag packing at local supermarkets.

The centre is now bringing in around £2,500 a month which meets the costs of running the centre but with staff all working at the centre voluntarily and more interest being shown in hiring the centre and with bookings, the centre is now enjoying a good profit.

Ms Holyoake added: "We have worked so hard to achieve what we have and have raised so much money to keep the place open. This could put any of our future work in jeopardy. We are absolutely devastated."

A Gwent Police spokeswoman said they received a report of a woman saying she was collecting money on behalf of Pill Millennium Centre in Alma Street on April 12.

Officers checked with the centre and it confirmed no-one was carrying out a collection on its behalf.

Police are advising people not to hand over any cash and always check people's ID when they carrying out collections and, if they are in any doubt, do not hand over money.

Anyone with information is asked to call Gwent Police on 101.