Accrington cowboy builder gets 10 years in jail (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Accrington cowboy builder gets 10 years in jail
10:30am Wednesday 20th June 2012 in Accrington
Sydney Fletcher
A COWBOY builder who conned elderly and vulnerable people out of more than £400,000 has been jailed for almost ten years.
Sydney Fletcher, 40, of Exchange Street, Accrington, had pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to nine charges of fraud.
Fletcher also admitted two further charges of benefit fraud by claiming, while carrying out his ‘despicable’ cons, that he could not walk more than five yards.
He was jailed for a total of nine years for his building work frauds, with a consecutive nine-month sentence for the benefit frauds through which he obtained £51,306.
Prosecutor Lal Amarasinghe said the frauds involved nine elderly or vulnerable people living in Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands, who were conned into handing over a total of £404,605.
He said: “He has preyed on them and taken their savings. They were elderly or vulnerable, some were in very poor health, and one has since died. The confidence fraud involves him agreeing to undertake building work which was never done or was only partly done or done to a very poor standard.”
Mr Amarasinghe said Fletcher’s work was worth just £17,000 in total, some of which required further remedial work.
Investigations involving the police and Trading Standards officers began in late 2009 but Fletcher, who had given his unfortunate customers a series of false business addresses, was not arrested until February this year.
Alan Compton, defending, said: “Nothing I say in mitigation should be seen as minimising the trauma these people must have suffered. He knows he must face a lengthy custodial sentence.This is plainly a case of deliberate targeting of vulnerable victims.”
He said Fletcher, who had just one previous conviction for a car tax fraud when he was 24, should get credit for his pleas, and pointed out that his benefit claims were legitimate when he first made them.
Of the main frauds, he said: “He got heavily into debt because of a serious gambling problem and money owed to loan sharks.”
Judge Marten Coates said Fletcher’s targeting of vulnerable people was “persistent and deliberate and merciless”.
Comments(12)
RUinsane
says...
10:42am Wed 20 Jun 12
Am i in yet..?
says...
10:45am Wed 20 Jun 12
prince of darkness wrote:Looks like he's eaten it.
No sign of the money ??.
RUinsane
says...
10:48am Wed 20 Jun 12
Am i in yet..? wrote:And its stuck in his throat!
prince of darkness wrote:Looks like he's eaten it.
No sign of the money ??.
Just think, if he shaved his beard off his chin would be three inches lower. Strange but true
mavrick
says...
10:48am Wed 20 Jun 12
everywhere is sh1t
says...
11:56am Wed 20 Jun 12
woolywords
says...
12:42pm Wed 20 Jun 12
sen c bl
says...
5:55pm Wed 20 Jun 12
RUinsane wrote:Nevermind the verbal pi55-take.
Am i in yet..? wrote:And its stuck in his throat!
prince of darkness wrote:Looks like he's eaten it.
No sign of the money ??.
Just think, if he shaved his beard off his chin would be three inches lower. Strange but true
Try suggesting means of recovering the 400k or is it the limited pea brain unable to function correctly.
RUinsane
says...
11:58pm Wed 20 Jun 12
sen c bl wrote:I fail to see how a recommendation on how to recover 400k by a member of public can be acted on, on a public forum. Me I leave that for those whose job it is because I don't think that a goon like yourself opinion is in any way important enough to consider.
RUinsane wrote:Nevermind the verbal pi55-take.
Am i in yet..? wrote:And its stuck in his throat!
prince of darkness wrote:Looks like he's eaten it.
No sign of the money ??.
Just think, if he shaved his beard off his chin would be three inches lower. Strange but true
Try suggesting means of recovering the 400k or is it the limited pea brain unable to function correctly.
Or for your pea like, this forum is for comments from the public, not the judge or the crown prosecution.
sen c bl
says...
4:21pm Thu 21 Jun 12
RUinsane wrote:People who suffer at the hands of conmen, regardless whether a court ruling the sentence, are vulnerable and in need of support. Individuals, victims who choose to pursue the matter privatley to recover their losses could do so freely without the intervention of the sentencing courts. Assets may be seized and losses compensated. Victim readers, who frequently read LET, can suddenly experiance a 'spark', resulting in action taken accordingly.
sen c bl wrote:I fail to see how a recommendation on how to recover 400k by a member of public can be acted on, on a public forum. Me I leave that for those whose job it is because I don't think that a goon like yourself opinion is in any way important enough to consider.
RUinsane wrote:Nevermind the verbal pi55-take.
Am i in yet..? wrote:And its stuck in his throat!
prince of darkness wrote:Looks like he's eaten it.
No sign of the money ??.
Just think, if he shaved his beard off his chin would be three inches lower. Strange but true
Try suggesting means of recovering the 400k or is it the limited pea brain unable to function correctly.
Or for your pea like, this forum is for comments from the public, not the judge or the crown prosecution.
Continue with your name-calling and I've got one for you,
A 4KIN GOON!!!
maz;0)
says...
10:14pm Sun 24 Jun 12
everywhere is sh1t wrote:The jails are full of conmen like him, mostly cowboy roofers from Accy, I could name 6 or 7 of them that should be back inside, they're claiming benefits and working on the roofs, knocking,dipping, robbing the owd folk. But they'll never have anything in the long run cos it catches up with em eventually. ;)
ugly ,fat,double chinned scum should have everything he owns taken from him i hope someone inside finds out what he has done and gives him a good kicking
!"£$%^
says...
12:44pm Mon 25 Jun 12
So I say GOOD ON YA whoever prosecuted this scumbag I only wish you were from Burnley area because the Scum who ripped me off is still out there, driving his fancy car, but I’ll never recover.
prince of darkness says...
10:40am Wed 20 Jun 12