An elderly man has become the victim of Britain’s biggest cowboy builder scam after handing over nearly £800,000 for work he didn’t need.
Twelve cowboy builders conned the victim out of £775,000 and forced him to remortgage his home, a court heard.
It is thought to be the biggest amount paid out to rogue traders by a single victim.
The con artists, aged between 21 and 75, repeatedly approached their 68-year-old victim offering to carry out ‘repairs’ to his roof before sabotaging it.
The man, of Watford, Herts, was originally approached by brothers James and Michael O’Brien who insisted his roof needed to be fixed and offered to replace loose tiles for a small fee.
In the months that followed after August 2011 the two men carried out a series of unauthorised repairs to the roof and other parts of the property.
The works continued until January 2012, by which point the victim had been ordered to pay £98,000 and serious damage had been caused to his property.
Following this, he was approached by another man who told him he would carry out further repairs – which were also completely unnecessary.
By the middle of 2012 another man approached the victim, and told him he worked for HMRC and was investigating fraudulent work carried out on his home.
He promised to recover his money, but only after he paid a further £39,000 in unpaid taxes.
Fearful of prosecution and acting in the belief that the man was who he purported to be, the victim paid the money.
Over the following months he was asked to pay more money to the bogus ‘HMRC official’ in cash through a series of ‘couriers’ who were sent to his property.
The demands for money became more threatening and the victim was told he faced a long prison sentence if he failed to pay the unpaid taxes.
A friend of the victim raised concerns with the police in February 2013 and officers began an investigation before making 15 arrests and charges.
Two trials took place in March at St Albans Crown Court and 12 of the men have now been given both prison and suspended sentences at St Albans Crown Court.
Det Con Kelly Gray, of Hertfordshire Constabulary, said: “Initially the victim didn’t believe he had been a victim of a crime, so we had to work very closely with him to make him understand what had happened to him.
“It may seem unbelievable to anyone hearing about this case that someone could find themselves in this situation.
“The victim is a well-educated, retired professional man who has, over a period of time, been continually worn down by these men and fed a series of lies.
“They were extremely convincing in their manner and told him his roof would fall down if he didn’t have the work carried out.
“The victim ended up having to re-mortgage his house to pay them off and in total we believe he handed over up to £775,000 to these men and by the time we intervened, he was struggling to make ends meet.
“I am pleased with the sentences and hope that the victim can now feel he is able to live in his own home safely, without the threat of them returning.”
Most of the men were sentenced for their roles in the scam.
