The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Conman to pay victims £29,000
A BOGUS workman who conned two women in their 80s out of almost £40,000 has been ordered to hand over £29,000 in ill-gotten cash.
Fife man Robert McLaren, who on the face of it ran a roofing and paving company, was jailed for two years and nine months last September for charging extortionate amounts for work that was unnecessary.
In passing sentence, Sheriff James Williamson described the crime as a “cunning and prolonged plan” that was “outrageous” and “bordering on extortion”.
McLaren delivered work at a substandard quality and to a grossly inflated price.
In this way, he obtained £37,500 by fraud from an 83-year-old victim, and £1,000 from an 84-year-old victim.
McLaren, 32, a prisoner in HMP Perth, repeatedly told his first victim that “urgent” work needed done at her property in Glenrothes and that his business would do it.
McLaren first told the widow that her roof required to be fixed, costing £8,000, then charged her £9,000 to monoblock the drive and put chips down.
He later told the woman he would do £6,000 of work on her side garden and charged her £3,500 to refelt the garage roof.
He even persuaded his victim to buy him a new van, claiming he had crashed his own one and the vehicle was part of the materials for the job.
In both cases, he drove his victims to the bank to withdraw cash. He pled guilty to two charges of fraud on August 20 2013.
Hugh Trainor, defending, told an earlier hearing that McLaren would sell his luxury Audi A5 car and hand over thousands of pounds of cash to compensate his victims.
At Kirkcaldy S h e r i ff Court yesterday, SheriffAlastairThornton granted a confiscation order requiring McLaren to hand over £29,000.
Procurator fiscal for organised crime and counter-terrorism Lindsey Miller said: “The confiscation order that we have secured today represents the full amount of McLaren’s assets that are currently available to us.
“Should we uncover further assets in the future, we can go back to the court and seek to raise the amount of the confiscation order up to the total amount of his criminal profit.”