Two years’ jail for OAP in £380,000 wind turbines con
A PENSIONER who conned two families out of £380,000 in a green energy scam has been jailed.
Robert McKechnie, 73, previously admitted convincing people to invest thousands of pounds in wind turbines that were never built.
He promised investors, including a man of 90, they would see a return within three years by selling energy to the National Grid. But Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that
McKechnie, who now lives in a caravan in Ayr, did not build a single turbine and none of his victims recovered their cash.
McKechnie, who had pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud between March 1, 2010, and October 1, 2013, was jailed for 27 months on Friday.
Sheriff William Summers said: ‘In my assessment the gravity and scale is such there is no appropriate penalty other than the imposition of a custodial sentence.’ The court previously heard that two turbines were sold to 90-year-old Sydney Manett. He paid £154,862 for each turbine on behalf of his sons Gary and Stephen, both of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.
Mr Manett told the court the deal had been to secure his family’s future but had instead left him ‘in a bad situation’.
McKechnie’s firm, UK Wind Energy Scotland, paid only a 15 per cent deposit to the suppliers and the turbines were later sold to another company when he did not finalise the payments.
McKechnie also sold a third turbine to an unnamed woman from St Fergus, Aberdeenshire, for £78,435 in March 2010. He promised the turbine would make her £56,000 a year but did not deliver it.
Brian Holliman, representing McKechnie, said his client had
‘No prospect of repayment’
taken the orders ‘in good faith’ but there was no prospect of repayment as he had ‘lost everything he had’.
He added: ‘These orders were placed, money paid over and he accepts the turbines were never supplied to these individuals. Notwithstanding his plea, his position is the turbines were only not supplied due to the financial collapse of his business.
‘Perhaps had he realised at an earlier stage this business wasn’t working out he wouldn’t find himself where he does. He certainly didn’t make any money out of the business.
‘He does have genuine remorse that anyone lost out as a result of his actions.’