THE BURGLAR AND HIS CLAN WHO PREY ON ELDERLY
HENRY JOSEPH VINCENT (AKA Henry junior) THE dead burglar’s known criminal career dates back to 2003 when, aged just 23, he was part of a £1 million cowboy builder scam with his father and five uncles.
He was jailed for four-and-a-half years, but was soon back to his old tricks.
In 2008, again with his father, he scammed a pensioner out of £72,000 to replace a single roof tile — showing the pensioner a handful of maggots as evidence his roof needed replacing — and was jailed for six years.
Released early, by 2013 he was on Kent Police’s ‘most wanted’ list in connection with a burglary in which an 84-year-old woman was conned out of thousands of pounds by men posing as police officers.
But he was deemed unfit to stand trial — for reasons unknown.
Then, in January this year, police named Vincent and his uncle’s stepson, Billy Jeeves, as wanted in connection with a ‘distraction’ burglary in which a 70-yearold man’s jewellery was stolen. HENRY CHARLES VINCENT (Henry junior’s father) IN 2003, Henry senior, then 44, was described as the leader of a seven-strong family gang of cowboy builders who had fleeced elderly householders of more than £1 million.
The gang would frogmarch their vulnerable victims to the bank after telling them their houses were about to fall down. The seven were jailed for a total of nearly 30 years. Henry senior, now 59, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years.
Just five years later, in 2008, he joined his son once again to swindle an 81-yearold man out of £72,000 for roof repairs.
This time, however, he went on the run, leaving his son to take the rap (for which he was jailed). Henry senior was caught in September 2010 and jailed for six years the following August.
His current whereabouts are unknown. ROBERT VINCENT (Henry senior’s brother) UNCLE ROBERT was one of seven members of the Vincent Clan who appeared at Croydon Crown Court in 2003.
He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years for his part in the building scam.
In 2011, Robert, 48, brother James and their cousin Amos, 27, were jailed for 17 years and four months for trying to con elderly people out of thousands of pounds for unnecessary home repairs.
The brothers were arrested after coldcalling the home of an elderly couple and telling them they needed roof repairs costing £2,800.
Robert was sentenced to eight years for two charges of fraud.
Released early, in August last year the 47-year-old was back at Wood Green Crown Court, where he was sentenced to five years and three months after admitting fraud by false representation.
He’d tried to trick a pensioner into signing over his £540,000 house to pay for work that was never carried out. DAVID VINCENT (Henry senior’s brother) DAVID VINCENT, 50, was sentenced to six years in prison for his part in the cowboy builder scam in 2003.
He and his 42- year- old brother Clifford, 42, were responsible for the ‘worst offence’, duping an 80-year-old woman from Streatham, South London, into handing over £27,000 for building repairs.
After quizzing her about her relatives, and driving her to the bank to withdraw £1,000 of her last £1,700, the brothers persuaded the pensioner to sign over her £150,000 house in return for free repairs for the rest of her life. A surveyor later estimated that just £250 worth of work had been carried out. JOHN VINCENT (Henry senior’s brother) UNCLE JOHN, 55, next brother in line to Henry senior, was sentenced to two years for his role in the cowboy builder scam. CLIFFORD VINCENT (Henry senior’s brother) UNCLE CLIFFORD, 42, was jailed for fourand-a-half years for his involvement. STEVEN VINCENT (Henry senior’s brother) UNCLE STEVEN, 53, was sentenced to 21 months for his part in the scam. JAMES VINCENT (Henry senior’s brother) IN 2011, Uncle Jimmy, 46, was jailed for six years for his part in a building scam with brother Robert and cousin Amos.
After sentencing, Det Sgt Keith Simmonett said: ‘These are three callous, unremorseful individuals whose aim is to con as many elderly people as possible.’ AMOS VINCENT (Henry senior’s first cousin) IN 2007, police were forced to offer an underworld amnesty for the return of a pensioner’s war medals after Amos, 35, and his brother, William, posed as water board officials to scam their way into the 82-year-old former airman’s home.
Amos, then 23, was jailed for three years after admitting the medal theft and a second distraction burglary. He was next jailed for 40 months, with cousins James and Robert, for yet another rogue builder scam of the elderly.
In September 2015, he was jailed for a further six years after preying on elderly victims in Gravesend and Maidstone.
He’s currently on the run after absconding from HMP Standford Hill open prison. WILLIAM VINCENT (Henry senior’s first cousin) NOW 37, William was jailed for four years for two distraction burglaries of elderly people, carried out with brother Amos. BILLY JEEVES (Henry senior’s step-nephew) RELATED to Henry junior and senior through his mother Tina (the partner of uncle David Vincent), 28-year-old Billy’s criminal history is similarly unsavoury.
Now on the run, he was just 18 when he was one of three men who posed as policemen in an attempt to steal a car, unaware that the occupants of the car were plain-clothed police officers.
He was given a 12-month conditional discharge. In January this year, police said they were still looking for the criminal in connection with a distraction burglary carried out in November, in Farningham, Kent.