Stabbed burglar’s uncle and cousin are jailed for fraud
ThE uncle and cousin of career criminal henry Vincent were jailed yesterday for swindling a homeowner out of thousands of pounds.
henry Vincent, 37, was killed during a break-in at the home of pensioner richard Osborn-Brooks, 78, earlier this month.
yesterday the stabbed burglar’s relatives David Vincent, 50, and his 26-year-old son, also called David, were jailed for convincing their victim he needed urgent building work by falsely telling him his house was infested with vermin.
They tried to extort up to £13,000 from robert Etheridge, 60, and even produced three dead rats as evidence. But their deceit was uncovered when Mr Etheridge, from Dartford, Kent, contacted his insurance company, which raised the alarm with police. The two men are members of the notorious Vincent family of cowboy builders. A genuine builder who inspected the ‘work’ carried out concluded it was ‘valueless, non-urgent and bodged’.
it comes following public outcry over the case of henry Vincent after Mr Osborn-Brooks was questioned on suspicion of murder and fellow travellers festooned his street in hither Green, south- east London, with floral tributes. Mr Osborn-Brooks was released without charge.
yesterday, Maidstone Crown Court heard henry Vincent’s relatives targeted Mr Etheridge at his home last November claiming parts of his roof were rotten and his loft was infested with rodents, bird nests and maggots.
They got Mr Etheridge, who was off work sick at the time, to hand over £6,000. The rogue traders even had the gall to warn him not to tell anyone ‘or the newspapers would find out’.
The father and son, together with 36-year-old John Baker, all admitted fraud. The court heard they wore jackets emblazoned with a company logo ‘ideal home improvement’ and used a van bearing the same name.
Vincent Snr, from Orpington in Kent, who has a previous conviction for a similar cowboy builder scam, was jailed for 21 months.
Father-of-three Vincent Jnr, also from Orpington, and Baker, from Eltham, south- east London, were sentenced to 18 months.
Judge Philip Statman said they ‘deliberately targeted a vulnerable victim’. ‘you tricked your victim into believing that there had been some form of damage which may have been caused by a pigeon, that there was rot in the roof and furthermore, there was an infestation,’ he said.
‘Any work that had been done was a botched job. your victim describes how your visits made him feel intimidated.’ henry Vincent’s funeral is due to be held next week but there was no mention of his death during the hearing except for a brief reference to a ‘bereavement’.