Crime Solicitors

Aylesbury Crown Court has jailed two contractors for roofing scams, after an initial quote of £100 for roofing work escalated to £35,000.

The court heard that repairs to an elderly and vulnerable Buckinghamshire resident's flat roof progressively rose to a £35,000, as the contractors found more work to do. However, the repairs were not needed.

The court also heard about their dealings with another elderly resident, when an original £300 quote for repairs to her shed roof turned into a £1,600 bill for new guttering – although the price was dropped to £1,300.

Tommy Fury of Old London Road in Chipping Norton and John O'Reilly of Stanbridge Road in Great Billington admitted fraud and failing in professional diligence at a previous hearing and were each jailed for nine months.

The court heard that the first resident had called in Weathershield Roofing in April 2016 to repair the flat roof at his Dagnall home. A representative arrived, quoted £100, but returned the following day with a colleague and hiked the quote to £5,000, saying the whole roof needed replacing.

Both men – Fury and O'Reilly – then asked to inspect the loft and claimed the rafters needed replacing at a cost of £35,000.

The resident wrote a cheque for £20,000 in O'Reilly's name – but the following day he realised he had been conned and called family members. When they inspected the loft, they could find no damage or defect to the rafters and they raised the alarm.

When the two men returned the following day to start work, Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards officers were waiting for them.

The court heard the same month another elderly resident from Aylesbury called in Weathershield to look at her garden shed roof.

A representative, who introduced himself as “John” quoted £300 for repairs, raised it to £1,600 when the resident asked him to look at the guttering and then dropped the price to £1,300. She paid £1,380 into O'Reilly's bank account.

However, she was not happy with the work and when she tried to call Weathershield to complain the guttering was poorly fitted and did not catch rainwater, she found herself diverted to Tesco.

O'Reilly eventually called her back and the two men returned to fix the problem, but the work was to a poor standard.

Surveyor Charles Leigh-Dugmore was called in by Trading Standards to assess the value of the work and said he considered the work done by the two men at the first house was worthless and that there was nothing wrong with the timbers and insulation in the loft.

His report on the work they did at the second house valued it at just over £250 excluding VAT, although a reasonable professional rate would have been around £650 excluding VAT.

Both men had been given suspended jail sentences for similar offences in 2014.
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Buckinghamshire County Council Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, Noel Brown, said the family's early alert was vital in enabling the speedy response and investigation by the Trading Standards and Thames Valley Police partnership.

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