TWO rogue traders have pleaded guilty to fraud at Newton Abbot Magistrates Court following an investigation by Devon and Somerset Trading Standards, and will be sentenced next month.
Bryan Ferren, aged 38 and Kevin Hogg aged 41, both of Clifton Court, Clifton Road, Paignton, admitted to conning over £70,000 out of 17 elderly Devon residents over a 13-month period.
The court heard how, between November 2012 and December 2013, the pair cold-called properties across the county pressuring their vulnerable victims in to driveway repair and resurfacing work.
Trading as Unique Drives & Coatings, they charged high prices for poor quality work, offered fraudulent and meaningless guarantees and failed to provide customers with the required paperwork, specifically in relation to their statutory rights as to cancellation of the contracts.
When the work was completed, either to a poor standard or left unfinished, they would leave the site and become impossible to contact, seldom returning, despite repeated requests from their disappointed and distressed customers.
The two bogus businessmen were not ignorant to their crimes or their legal obligations in relation to consumer protection, and had in fact been reminded by Trading Standards three times by 2013 following concerns raised by the public.
Councillor Roger Croad, Devon County Council’s cabinet member with responsibility for Trading Standards, said: ‘This was no light-hearted loveable rogue case. These men are criminals who preyed on the elderly and vulnerable in order to make money. For several of their victims, the money they defrauded from them was part of their life-savings set aside for their old age.
‘I am pleased that our trading standards team have stopped them ripping off any more of our residents.
‘The work they do to protect the people of Devon and Somerset is invaluable and I encourage anyone who suspects they have been conned to come forward.’
The magistrate considered their sentencing powers insufficient for the seriousness and scale of the offences so summoned Ferren and Hogg to return to Exeter Crown Court for sentencing on June 17.