A BUILDING company boss who misled customers and failed to return deposits when jobs went wrong has been told he faces a jail term.

Blackburn magistrates heard impact statements from two of Umran Suleman victims told of the hardship his actions had caused them.

District Judge Michael Hopkinson, who heard the case, said he had no doubt the offences merited a custodial sentence.

He said: "The public deserve protection from people like you.

"My view is that an appropriate sentence would be a custodial one and of some considerable length.

"The offences were planned, they were prolonged and involved the deliberate withholding of repayment of monies that had been given to you.

"You used the logos of regulatory bodies to mislead the public as to the tradesmen working for you.

"The two victims were vulnerable people who had saved substantial amounts of money to pay you and you refused to hand it back.

"To compound the situation when they went to look for the company they found they had been given a false address."

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Suleman, 36, of Regents View, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to 17 charges under trading standards regulations, some in his own name and some in the name of U & A Drylining Limited.

He was committed on bail to Preston Crown Court to be sentenced.

Nick McNamara, prosecuting for Lancashire Trading Standards, said Addur Rokib had asked Suleman to price a job after seeing him working on the street where he lives in Rawtenstall.

A price was agreed and Suleman later went to collect £1,650 deposit.

An invoice was given for the job which contained the Gas Safe and National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC) logos and a business address in Leyland.

Subsequent inquiries showed that neither of the regulatory authorities had ever heard of Suleman or his company and when Mr Rokib went to get his money back.

The second victim, Julie O'Brien, handed over cash for electrical and plumbing work which turned out to be defective. She tried to get her money back and was promised a refund by Suleman but he never came up with any money. She also went to the address in Leyland only to find it was occupied by a totally unrelated company.

Mr McNamara said the electrics at Miss O'Brien's home blew after the contractors left and a leaking radiator caused her kitchen floor to lift and the hot water ran cold after a couple of minutes.

Trading Standards investigators tracked Suleman to his Blackburn address where they found a van on the drive advertising Right Choice Contractors, which also bore the Gas Safe and NICEIC logos, as well as the Lancashire County Council Trader Standards scheme logo, the court heard.

"The latter is run by Trading Standards and we had never heard of the defendant before this investigation," said Mr McNamara.

In her victim impact statement Miss O'Brien said she was a single parent of three children, who relied on her wage to provide for her family.

She said she had to arrange an overdraft and use her credit cards to pay for the work to rectify the electrical and plumbing faults.

Miss O'Brien said: "I have had many sleepless nights crying about the financial position I am now in."

Mr Rokib said he was a married father-of-three who was in receipt of disability living allowance because of mental health problems.

He said he had saved for a long time and sold some of the family gold to pay Suleman.

"This incident has caused me a great deal of stress and I can't afford to lose that money," said Mr Rokib.

Gareth Price, defending, said Suleman had spent many years working as an employee and saw the opportunity of setting up his own business as a way to improve the lives of himself, his wife and their five children.

Mr Price said: "He perhaps lacked the business acumen to go with his ambition."

"As far as he was concerned the contractors he employed were appropriately qualified and had the relevant certificates.

"He accepts he did not make sufficient inquiries and was naive about the regulations.

"He tells me that rather than benefitting his family this venture has left him trying to service a debt of £28,000."