COWBOY

BARRIER Israeli MP David Bitan Driveways, extensions, loft conversions... Dennis Pickerden would start loads of jobs, he just wouldn’t finish them. Having used cheap quotes to tempt homeowners into signing contracts, he’d then engineer a dispute and walk off the job, often leaving the site in a dangerous state. The 46-year-old crook, who operated across Lincolnshire, has now been jailed for six years and nine months after pleading guilty to fraudulent trading at Sheffield crown court. Victims lost more t £250,000, and in som cases that represente their life savings. “Pickerden’s offending w carefully planned and so extensive that prosecutors were able to show that it amounted to serious fraud, said Arslan Khan of the Specialist Fraud Division of Crown Prosecution Service