A ROGUE trader who lied on his website to con people into paying him thousands of pounds to do repair work on their driveways has been jailed.

Preston Crown Court heard John Hargadon, 49, of Cross Skelton Street, Colne, already had previous convictions for defrauding customers when he set about his latest stint of deception.

Prosecuting, Jack Troup said that when Hargadon was questioned by one of his victims about a newspaper article detailing his past fraud he denied it referred to him and blamed his nephew.

The court heard Hargadon would approach victims at their homes, tell them that he was working in the area and offered to fix their ‘tired looking driveways’. He even took one victim to a house where he falsely claimed he had done £12,000 of work in order to convince them to hire him.

Mr Troup said: “On September 30, 2015, the defendant approached Toni Roethling at her home in Barton. The defendant offered to re-surface her driveway and provided her with his business card containing the website www.hargadondriveways.co.uk.

“Mrs Roethling saw on the defendant’s website that he was displaying a logo for ‘ratedpeople.com’. This is a quality mark for trades people requiring members to register and be appraised by reviewers.

“The website also contained a ‘Most Trusted’ rosette and a ‘Focus on Quality’ trust mark. Both of these marks are in fact meaningless.

“The defendant did have an account with ratedpeople.com but this had been closed in November 2013 due to negative feedback."

“Despite the closure of his account the defendant had continued to display this logo in between September 2015 and April 2016.”

The court heard Mrs Roethling agreed a price of £6,300 for the work and agreed a payment schedule, staring with a £2,000 deposit on October 1, 2015. The following day Hargadon asked for a further £2,000 for materials. On October 3 the victim asked for a £2,500 refund as the work carried out had not justified the money she had paid. Although Hargadon agreed to the refund the money was never paid.

The court heard Hargadon also conned victim Kevin Callagher, from Goosnargh, out of £4,350, in a scam which started on September 30, 2015.

Mr Troup said the victim raised questions about Hargadon’s credibility after seeing reports about his previous convictions online.

The prosecutor said: “Mr Callagher challenged the defendant in relation to this article during a phone conversation. The defendant denied he had been prosecuted and asserted that it was his nephew who was prosecuted.”

Mr Callagher allowed Hargadon to carry on but nine days later he discovered a fault with his work, which meant any water on the driveway flowed towards the house rather than into the drains of the property. Hardagon said he would only fix thee issue if the victim paid an additional £100.

The court heard the final victim was Peter Wareing, who Hargadon approached at home in December 2015 and offered to re-surface his driveway for £1,000.

Mr Wareing, who is from Hoghton, agreed to pay a £360 deposit. Despite problems with the work the victim paid the remaining £640 balance. He also paid a further £231 for Hargadon to repair his side path. That work has never been done and Mr Wareing’s driveway has now begun to crumble.

Hardagon, who has three previous convictions for 14 offences, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by false representation and two of engaging in unfair commercial practices.

Judge Ian Leeming QC was jailed Hargadon for 43 weeks.