Published date: 30 January 2017 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
A convicted burglar has been jailed after police lay in wait at the home of an elderly couple to catch cowboy builders who charged more than £9,000 for shoddy workmanship.
In October three men were jailed for their part in the fraud on the couple in the Caergwrle area and on Friday a fourth man, Michael McGuire, 42, received a 12 month sentence.
He admitted fraud and was told that he would have received a two year sentence if the offence stood alone.
But he was ordered to serve the 12 month sentence consecutively to a six-and-a-half year sentence he is already serving from September of last year.
McGuire, of Homestead Lane, Wrexham was involved in 22 burglaries as part of a gang of burglars targeting Asian families for the gold they had in their homes.
Judge Niclas Parry said that the present offence of defrauding an elderly couple was “wicked”.
“The public would be sickened to understand that elderly people, one aged 81, were deliberately targeted by a gang,” he said.
The victims were decent, hard working people who had been deprived of a significant amount of money.
Judge Parry said the elderly man was so afraid that he walked to the bank to try and obtain money to hand over.
McGuire’s case was seriously aggravated by his previous convictions and that he had operated as part of a group, he said.
Prosecuting barrister Kim Halsall told Mold Crown Court that the couple from the Caergwrle area agreed to have some work done to their garage after a man called at their home.
He was 81, his wife was 73, and with no proper quote or paperwork four or five men worked at the garage for a number of days.
They asked for £9,800 in cash, the wife was frightened of the man who made the demand and her husband walked to the bank to get it.
Bank staff were concerned and unhappy to give him the money but the wife later went herself and obtained the cash.
She handed it over and asked for a receipt but did not get one.
Their son called the police when he realised what was going on, an operation to catch them was set up, and another man turned up and asked for a further £3,300.
Police were waiting in the house and three were arrested.
McGuire said he had been there two or three times and painted a garage wall.
He said he had gone there with three others and claimed another man was in charge of the job.
McGuire said he had been paid £100 for his work.
While the couple had paid more than £9,000 the work was in fact valued at about £600 but extra money would need to be spent to repair the damage they had caused.
In a victim impact statement, the wife told how she had been an independent lady, still driving, and cared for her husband.
But since her experience at the hands of the defendants she had to be assisted each day by family members. She blamed herself and just wanted to cry although she knew that would not do any good.
They had worked hard all their lives for the money they had which was being used not on expensive holidays but just to do normal things like visiting family.
Defending barrister Sukhdev Garcha said it was accepted it had to be custody.
His client was already serving a significant sentence for previous burglaries.
In the present case he had a lesser role and was not the person who demanded the money.
While in custody he had completed a victim awareness course and was undertaking voluntary drug testing.
http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/171851/convicted-burglar-from-wrexham-jailed-for-role-in-building-scam-gang.aspx
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