£39k rogue roofer must repay £5,130
AROGUE roofer who swindled elderly residents out of £39,000 has been ordered to pay back just £5,130.
Thomas Mochan, 43, targeted his victims, who lived in Bridgend, by convincing them they needed work done on their houses when it wasn’t necessary.
He overcharged his customers, with one couple charged £27,000 for a minor job, and stole between £12,000 and £13,000 from a safe belonging to a 90-year-old woman.
The defendant was jailed for three years and eight months in June last year after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud and one count of theft.
Appearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, Mochan was said to have benefited by £39,644.81 from his fraudulent behaviour.
But the court was told his available assets amounted to £5,130.07.
Recorder Greg Bull QC ordered the defendant, of Cae Garw caravan site, to pay £3,940, with the police having already seized £1,200 in cash and a Rolex watch at the time of Mochan’s arrest.
He will serve six months’ imprisonment in default if the sum is not paid within the next three months.
Mochan, who traded under the name of John Price, used pseudonyms 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 carrying out 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 about £2,800.
The defendant’s next victim was a 70-year-old woman who was caring for her terminally ill husband at the time.
After 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.
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.
The prosecution said most of the work was “shoddy” and Mochan had overcharged the customer by £18,400.
Mochan’s final victim was a 90-yearold woman who agreed to have work done.
In March 2019 Mochan told her 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 and when she wasn’t looking he disappeared with the contents – an amount of cash between £12,000 and £13,000.