FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
COWBOY BUILDER WHO PREYED ON ELDERLY IS JAILED
A COWBOY builder who deliberately damaged pensioners’ roofs to con them into paying for repairs has been jailed.
Serial fraudster Thomas Connors, 64, swindled elderly people, including an 89-year-old man and his wife, 91.
He knocked on his victims’ doors and told them he had noticed there were missing tiles and their roofs needed repairing. Connors and an accomplice would then climb up and remove tiles, chip brickwork and tear down guttering.
He would offer to carry out the repairs he had created the need for, before demanding extra cash for specialist gear. The rogue trader was finally caught when a neighbour of one victim saw him deliberately wreck a gutter to cause a leak. Connors, of Lutterworth, Warwickshire, was sentenced to 20 months after admitting fraud and criminal damage. Judge Sylvia de Bertodano ordered him to pay £1,630 compensation.
She told him at Warwick crown court: ‘These offences are very serious. These are vulnerable people holding on to what remains of their independence, and you are taking advantage of them.’
The court heard Connors was previously jailed in 2016 for conning elderly people. Two years later, he was at it again. Andrew Wilkins, prosecuting, said: ‘An 89-year-old man who is hard of hearing and showing signs of dementia and his 91-year-old wife were at their home in Earlsdon, Coventry, when Connors knocked on the door.
‘He told the husband they were working in the area and had noticed some damage to the roof.’ The following week, Connors targeted an 85-year-old man with dementia in Birmingham, who handed over £500 for ‘repairs’ when there was nothing wrong.