Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Tarmac fraudster meets sticky end
Driveway conman who targeted the elderly is jailed
DESPICABLE Allan Coutts took the old driveway resurfacing scam to new lows.
To convince victims he was genuine, he used a fleet of seemingly official vehicles, including a Highways Agency-branded truck, another which was labelled Highways Maintenance, and a van emblazoned with the logo Trading Standards Approved.
Those victims were, of course, the elderly. Coutts played the role of the plausible boss and one of his tricks was to drive potential customers to other houses, which were nothing to do with him, to see his supposed high quality work.
When they returned, the victims would discover that a couple of Coutts’ heavies had already started work on their drives and the homeowners were told that it was too late to back out.
Another nasty trick was to increase the price at the end of the job, lying about how extra material had been needed. Coutts would even escort some of his frightened victims to their banks to withdraw cash.
His nemesis came in the shape of Trading Standards officers in Powys, who discovered that the victims were not limited to North Wales.
“We started in Wales and then found them in Shropshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Devon and Cornwall,” said the council’s lead Trading Standards officer, Clive Jones.
“We had 26 victims who gave primary evidence and because we trawled through his financial records we identified another 130 who had paid via credit card.”
Add in those who paid by cash and the total number of victims is around 500.
To try to avoid detection he used a range of trading names, including Roadmac Construction Limited, A Coutts Tarmac Division and Roads, and Drives & Asphalting.
Whatever the name, the new drives – which cost on average £2,000 – quickly fell apart, and five-year guarantees proved meaningless.
“Most victims said the new surface came off on their shoes, and their dogs would bring it into the house,” said Mr Jones.
“We had four chartered surveyors around the UK and all said it was totally worthless.
“Coutts tried to argue that some people were satisfied. We argued that it was 100% fraud from the moment he used a vehicle with Highways Agency on it and showed a fake company catalogue with a product which he would not use.” Coutts, 60, from Sandhurst, Berks, was convicted of fraud and money laundering offences and jailed for five and a half years. The sentence might have been longer but it could not be proven that he deliberately targeted the vulnerable.
He just happened to pick detached houses with long drives – the sort likely to be owned by older residents. The charity Action on Elder Abuse wants crimes against the elderly to be treated as hate crimes, with correspondingly stiffer penalties, like racist and homophobic offences. “This case is a prime example of where a specific aggravated offence of targeting older, vulnerable people could have strengthened the prosecution’s case and led to a tougher sentence from the judge,” said chief executive Gary Fitzgerald.
“If other countries can introduce a criminal charge of elder abuse, with mandatory increased sentencing, then so can we.
“We need a real deterrence that makes it clear that there will be a real cost if they hurt, neglect, abuse or steal from older people.”