Pair conned elderly victims in road scam
FATHER AND SON JAILED FOR POSING AS OFFICIAL WORKERS
DESPICABLE father-and-son rogue traders targeted vulnerable and elderly victims in a Tarmac scam by posing as trustworthy Highways Agency officials.
Mark and William Nunn told unsuspecting customers they would do cut price resurfacing repairs with left over materials from fixing motorways.
Wearing hi-vis jackets and trading under the name Highways Agents while using the Highways Agency logo to confuse and reassure victims, the pair ripped off people in the North East and further afield – including an 84-yearold dementia sufferer in Northumberland. Newcastle Crown Court heard the jobs were done using poor quality surface dressing, which crumbled, chipped and had to be replaced within just weeks.
The conmen would also demand hugely inflated payments, often using “bullying” tactics to get their cash. In just four-and-a-half months, between late 2015 and early 2016, the fraudsters pocketed £20,000 from duped customers.
Investigations revealed the firm had quarter-of-a-million pounds paid into its bank account in the year 2015-2016.
Nunn snr, 60, was director of Highways Agents and played a leading role in the scam.
Now he has been jailed for 32 months while Nunn jnr,
33, has been jailed for 16 months. Both men had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud.
Sentencing them, Recorder Chris Smith told them: “You were part of a conspiracy to defraud people and companies of money.
This is sometimes known as rogue trade fraud. You used a limited company, Highways Agents, to lend your activities a veneer of respectability.
“I am satisfied that was a deliberately chosen name, designed to confuse customers.”
The judge added: “People were ripped off. This offending involved mean, persistent and thoroughly dishonest offending.”
Prosecutor Stephen Duffield told the court Northumbria Police launched an investigation after an 84-year-old man with dementia was targeted in Corbridge, Northumberland.
He had been persuaded to sign a cheque, which was then filled in by someone else to a value of £2,500, for work that was not wanted or needed and was sub-standard.
The court heard the police probe into the company revealed 11 more victims.
The men, who the court heard are ashamed and remorseful for what happened, provided references to their ordinarily good characters.