Rhyl,North Wales - Man who admitted defrauding elderly people in Rhyl has escaped immediate imprisonment

Published date: 08 December 2015 | 

Published by: Staff reporter
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A NORTH Wales man who admitted defrauding elderly people over the work he carried out at their homes has escaped immediate imprisonment.

Defendant Kevin Barry Lee, aged 44, of Ganfa Wen, Talacre near Holywell, did work for pensioners in Rhyl and at the village of Henllan near Denbigh,

He admitted three fraud charges dating back to 2010 in a case brought by Denbighshire County Council and received a 20 week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Judge David Hale ordered him to carry out 140 hours unpaid work and warned him if he did anything like it again, then he was “going down.”

Lee was ordered to pay compensation of £625 and prosecution costs of £1,500.

Judge Hale told him that it was an aggravating feature that he had a previous conviction for conspiring to defraud involving a tarmac gang but that was when he was in his 20s.

Since then he had obviously been running a legitimate business and the judge said that he had read a number of references from satisfied customers who spoke well of him.

But it was apparent that in 2010, when there may have been pressures on him, he “went back to your old ways.”

Fortunately for him, it was limited to three occasions and the amount of money involved was not gross.

Judge Hale said that on one occasion it was a completely botched job where he had put a covering on a driveway in the wet when it was clearly not going to work.

But Lee had been so desperate for money that was what he did.

It was aggravated by the fact that his victims were all elderly, but the amounts involved were small, it was five years ago, and he generally operated a legitimate business.

He had also pleaded guilty.

Prosecuting barrister Phillip Clemo told how an 86-year-old lady in the St Margaret’s Drive area of Rhyl, agreed to have work done on her drive for £175.

Two hours later another man knocked on the door, said the work was done, but told her it would cost £250 because he had also painted some brickwork which she did not want doing.

The man would not accept a cheque, she paid him £130 in cash and a few days later the defendant arrived for the remainder.

She had not been to the bank and paid him in £1 coins which she had been saving.

Sometime later another man attended at the house and said she owed £100 but she closed the door on him.

The prosecutor said that the victim was in extremely poor health by now.

Next door was an elderly couple who had since passed away and they agreed to pay £1,200 for work to their drive.

Another man came to do the work and he said roofing tiles needed fixing for £380 and while he was there he would do work on the chimney which would not be expensive.

He wanted an additional £150 and the defendant later attended and said that it had been a good job,

The defendant’s admitted fraud in relation to the tiles and the chimney work which was said to be of poor quality.

A retired man at Henllan agreed to have his drive covered with a product which was to have a five year guarantee and a depression was also to be fixed.

A sealant was applied in the wet and it remained sticky, some tarmac was put on the depression which left a lump in the drive, and the defendant wanted an extra £255.

The victim got in touch many times but was fobbed off, said Mr Clemo.

Daniel Travers, defending, said that the previous conviction was more than 20 years ago.

It was his case that the case could have been dealt with in the magistrates’ court, and the judge said that he agreed with that.

Work had been carried out. The defendant had been doing such work all his life to support his family and it was clear from references that he had many happy customers.

The offences occurred at a time when his father had passed away out of the blue and Lee was drinking too much.

He had admitted that the charges involved shoddy work and criminally so.

But he continued to work, advertised in local newspapers which had his landline available, he had an accountant, was properly insured and paid his taxes.