'Immoral' rogue traders who preyed on Plymouth's elderly are locked up

A pair of rogue tarmackers who preyed on elderly customers in Plymouth have been jailed after a judge branded them as unscrupulous and immoral.

Bryan Ferren and Kevin Hogg made £70,000 in the space of 13 months by charging sky-high prices to pensioners for shoddy work which should have cost a fraction of the what they demanded.

The work was so bad that many of the driveways developed potholes within weeks and the customers had to pay someone else to sort out the mess.

The two men ripped off 17 different customers including pensioners in Plymouth, Newton Abbot, Tiverton and Exeter.

Ferren, aged 38, and Hogg, aged 41, admitted fraudulent trading and four consumer protection offences and were both jailed for two years at Exeter Crown Court by Judge Graham Cottle.

He told them: "Your work was of poor standard and you generally overcharged customers excessively. You gave fraudulent and meaningless guarantees and failed to provide cancellation notices.

"Many of the people who had work carried out were in late middle age and in two cases were 81 and 92. Your behaviour throughout was unscrupulous and lacked any sort of moral compass.

"You abused the trust placed in you to carry out work properly and charge properly. The fraudulent activity was carried out over a sustained period of 13 months and there were a large number of victims.

"Many of the victims were vulnerable by virtue of their age and you took money they could ill afford to lose.

"Anyone who engages in this sort of scam must appreciate the overwhelming likelihood is that they will receive a prison sentence."

Sean Brunton said the men had previously been warned about their behaviour while running a roof sealing business but in 2012 set up as Unique Drives and Coatings, wrongly describing it as a partnership.

The cold called customers and bullied them into having work done. One of the first was an 81-year-old widow in Shillingford Road, Exeter, who paid just under £6,000 for useless driveway work.

The other victims suffered similar experiences. The oldest victim was 92 and caring for his wife, who suffered from Alzheimers, at their home in Buckfastleigh. He was charged £1,400 for jet washing work which left his roof leaking and which should have cost no more than £250.

Mr Brunton said: "These two men were rogue traders. They used pressure sales tactics to encourage customers to have work done there and then. The business was fraudulent from start to finish.

"This was not some random series of half baked jobs, opportunist chancing, or misunderstandings. It was a business run deliberately to perpetrate fraud.

"It was a scam from start to finish. These were no light hearted, lovable rogues. The 17 people they defrauded out of approximately £70,000 were mostly elderly.

"It was big business. For several of these victims, the money represented part of their life savings, set aside for their old age. The average age of the losers was 67."

Martin Salloway, for Ferren, said his client had been the front man who approached customers and did the paperwork. He said calls were at random and not targeted at elderly people or areas where they lived.

He said: "He accepts he was completely useless at paperwork and should have taken steps to make sure the business was properly run. They were cavalier, they accept that."

Katherine Allum, for Hogg, said both men have now been offered honest employment and are keen to repay those who have lost money.

The addresses where the pair carried out work included:

Shillingford Road, Exeter.

Langdon Fields, Galmpton,

Blagdon Rise, Crediton,

Churchill Road, Tiverton,

Wolverton Drive, Kingsteignton,

Salcombe Chine, Bishopsteignton,

Woolsery Avenue, Exeter,

Old Totnes Road, Buckfastleigh,

Winslade Park, Clyst St Mary,

Canada Hill, Newton Abbot,

Jennycliff Road, Plymstock,

Sherford Road, Plympton.

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