TWO men who were part of a team of bogus builders have been jailed for three years after they tricked a 76-year-old householder into handing over part of his life savings.

The pensioner, who lives alone in West Yorkshire, was preyed on by a group of men from East Lancashire and conned into parting with almost £10,000 for unnecessary roof work.

Bradford Crown Court heard that the victim was taken to the bank to get money to pay for the work and even had to cash in an ISA.

Prosecutor Dave Mackay said the victim had already paid £950 for work on his chimney when drug user Stuart Leeming, of Wickworth Street, Nelson, turned up in September last year offering to do more jobs at his home.

Leeming, who had more than 40 previous convictions on his record, visited the property four or five times and claimed to have done a variety of jobs such as replacing roof slate pegs, replacing flashing and putting mortar at the base of a wall to stop water getting into the cellar.

“In total over those days the victim paid over £5,000 for the work,” said Mr Mackay.

The pensioner was initially told replacing the slate pegs at a cost of £2,000 would take a very long time, but when he returned from the bank he was informed the work had been done.

Later the same month another drug addict Jason Pilkington, of Barkerhouse Road, Nelson, turned up at the house saying that the pensioner needed to pay an outstanding £2,000 for VAT.

“The complainant had inbetween times paid £2,000 to an unknown male who also claimed it was for VAT.

"That male has never been traced,” said Mr Mackay.

The suspicious pensioner alerted the police and when an architect inspected the work he concluded it had “no positive value at all”.

“A lot of it had a negative value because remedial work needed to be done,” said Mr Mackay.

Leeming was arrested after being identified through a cheque exchange bureau in Burnley, but during police interviews he claimed he had charged a fair price for the work.

Both men pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud by misrepresentation earlier this year, but Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC was told that Pilkington only received £100 of the money he obtained from the victim.

The court heard that Pilkington had previously served long prison sentences for drug dealing offences.

Judge Durham Hall said the victim had been targeted and described the work supposedly carried out by Leeming as a pretence and bogus.

He said Leeming's wicked involvement ended when the £5,000 was handed over, but word had clearly got round that the victim was “easy pickings” for unscrupulous people.

Judge Durham Hall said: “The money represented a substantial part of that old man's life savings and he deserved better in his later days than to be treated by the likes of you in that way.”