Roofer jailed for £12k theft
A ROGUE roofer who overcharged elderly and vulnerable women for shoddy work by thousands and stole a safe containing more than £12,000 from a 90-yearold has been jailed.
A ROGUE roofer who overcharged elderly and vulnerable women for shoddy work by thousands also stole a safe containing more than £12,000 from a 90-year-old.
Thomas Mochan, 43, cold-called his victims at their homes in Bridgend and convinced them work needed doing on the roofs of their houses when it wasn’t neccessary.
He also overcharged his clients and in one case kept increasing the price of the job until it reached £27,000.
Mochan, who traded under the name John Price, also took £700 from a 90-year-old for a job but left the same day with her safe containing between £12,000 and £13,000 without attempting to begin work on her property.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday heard from prosecutor Ian Ibrahim, who said Mochan would use a pseudonym and a company name of Spartan Roofing and Property Management.
His first victim, an 82-year-old woman, was cold-called by the defendant in October 2018 and was asked if she needed work on her roof. She was talked into giving him a job and they agreed a price of £2,300, but while performing the work he put the price up to £4,500.
The victim paid him by cheque but it appeared the work carried out by Mochan was badly done and it was calculated by the prosecution that the work should have cost in the region of £2,800.
The defendant’s next victim was a 70-year-old woman who was also caring for her terminally ill husband at the time of the offence.
After initially being turned down by the resident, Mochan returned in January 2019 and spoke to her husband, who agreed to let him replace a tile on the roof for a couple of hundred pounds.
But once Mochan was up on the roof, he said it required more work and a new price of £6,500 was agreed.
He later said the roof had woodworm and put the price up to £17,000, before putting the price up again to £27,000 after saying work needed to be carried out on the roof of their extension.
The woman refused to pay this and he reduced the fee to £25,000 saying he was “effectively working for free”.
The fee was paid in four separate payments, after Mochan gave another £500 reduction, but after the last payment was received, the victim was unable to get hold of the defendant, whose phone went to answer machine and emails bounced back.
The prosecution said most of the work was “shoddy” and “not fit for purpose”, and Mochan had overcharged the customer by £18,400.
Mochan’s final victim was a 90-year-old woman, who agreed to have work done after she mistook the defendant for her neighbour’s builder, who was due to pop round.
In March 2019, Mochan told her it was “going to be a big job” and he would need £700 up front, but after she paid him the fee, he told her she was £200 short.
She and Mochan went to the safe in her bedroom and when she wasn’t looking he disappeared with the contents, an amount of cash between £12,000 and £13,000.
The woman later described seeing the defendant walking through the gate with something bulky under his jumper, but she thought he was going to get tools from his van.
When he didn’t return she called the police and it was discovered that a neighbour had seen Mochan driving off in a white Nissan 4x4.
The registration was checked and traced back to Mochan’s home in Cae Garw Caravan Site in Bridgend.
He was arrested in March 2019, and after initially denying the offences he pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and one count of theft.
Defence barrister Matt Morgan described his client as a “family man”, a father of six and the sole breadwinner.
He added that Mochan had ADHD and depression which played some part in his bad decisionmaking.
Sentencing, Judge Richard Twomlow said: “You know very well what you did was seriously wrong. The sort of matter for which you have admitted can merit nothing other than a significant term of imprisonment.”
Mochan was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison.