Michael McGuire, 42, of Homestead Lane received a 12-month sentence for his part in the 'wicked' scam
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 and today a fourth man, Michael McGuire, received a 12-month sentence.
He admitted fraud and 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, 42, of Homestead Lane, Wrexham, was involved in 22 burglaries as part of a gang 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”.
Prosecuting barrister Kim Halsall told Mold Crown Court today 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.
The court heard that while the couple had paid more than £9,000 the work was in fact valued at about £600. Extra money would need to be spent to repair the damage the gang had caused.
In a victim impact statement, the wife told how she had been an independent woman, still driving, and cared for her husband.
But since her experience 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.
Judge Parry said: “The public would be sickened to understand that elderly people, one aged 81, were deliberately targeted by a gang.”
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