...as roofer has to repay victims

In better news, a coke addict roofer has been ordered to repay his victims, including a 96-year-old.

William Jones was jailed for 16 months in December for fraud in a prosecution by trading standards in East Sussex.

At a recent confiscation hearing, the 22-year-old claimed he’d given £12,000 to unnamed associates and the rest had gone up his nose.

The unimpressed judge told him to repay £15,000 or spend another year inside.

Councillor Bill Bentley said: “This is a tremendous result for the victims of these despicable crimes, but the compensation won’t make up for the toll these offences have taken on their lives.

“Jones deliberately targeted elderly and vulnerable victims, conning them out of substantial amounts of money they could ill afford to pay, for work they didn’t need.”