A pair of rogue traders have been found guilty of ripping off vulnerable pensioners by charging extortionate prices for work on drives and roofs.

Thomas Maughan and Thomas Mahon both operated out of the same caravan site at Farringdon, near Exeter, but targeted victims in Newton Abbot, Dawlish and Seaton, Exeter Crown Court decided.

They are both Irish travellers but used a third man named Matthew Latham as a front for their crooked schemes because he had a local accent and was more likely to be trusted.

Victims as old as 93 were taken in by the three men, who used the business name of Wimpey Construction, Paving and Cleaning in the hope of being mistaken for the well known and respected house builders.

Customers were charged sky-high prices for shoddy work and were then pressurised into paying in cash straight away.

The 93-year-old in Seaton was on the verge of handing over £5,200 for paving work on his drive when a bank cashier became suspicious and alerted police and trading standards.

A woman in Newton Abbot was charged £490 to have a sealant applied to her roof but the only work that was carried out was pressure washing which blasted moss on to a neighbour’s caravan.

She was then bullied into going to a cashpoint twice in the space of as many days to withdraw the money with the gang following her and preventing her getting home until she handed it over.

An 81-year-old customer in Seaton, who has since died, asked Latham whether he and Mahon were travellers and was told they were not. He only smelled a rat when they demanded £400 cash half way through the work on his drive.

Other victims included a widow in Seaton who came from Japan and spoke almost no English and a man in Dawlish who came back from holiday to find work had been done on his drive which he was then asked to pay for.

Thomas Maughan, aged 26, and Thomas Mahon, aged 45, both of Princes Paddock, Farringdon, together denied conspiracy to defraud but were found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court.

Maughan’s cousin Terence Maughan, aged 21, of Doncaster Road, Bristol, was cleared of the same offence.

Matthew Latham, aged 35, also of Farringdon, admitted conspiracy at the start of the trial.

Judge Erik Salomonsen adjourned sentence until February and ordered probation reports. He bailed the men but warned them they may face an immediate jail sentence.

He told them:"You chose to plead not guilty and the jury have returned verdicts based on powerful evidence."

At the start of the nine day trial Sean Brunton, prosecuting, branded the men as rogue traders and rip off artists.

He said:"This case is about what might be called rogue traders. A group of men who drove around Devon targeting primarily elderly people who they cold called without prior arrangement or invitation.

"They asked whether, and sometimes told them they needed work done on their roofs or driveways. Under pressure the customers, usually elderly people, agreed to the work.

"A large amount of money was mentioned and a negotiation on price led to a figure being agreed. Work was done quickly and usually poorly and the elderly customers told that cash is needed.

"In some cases elderly and vulnerable people were put under pressure and when they complied, that was another victim claimed and these men trousered the money and moved on to their next target.

"You may have seen cases like this on television. There are variations of these schemes but they involve hassle, pressure selling, and an organised group of rip off artists and confidence tricksters.

"The defendants are all cogs in the wheel. They agree to defraud and rip off customers. They overcharge them and do work they don’t actually want."

Mr Brunton said the first target was a woman living in Ash Way, Newton Abbot, the next a man in Dawlish, and the final four were all pensioners in Seaton.

Both Maughan and Mahon denied being involved in any dishonesty. Maughan said he was a tree surgeon who had given Latham lifts on two occasions.

Mahon said he had carried out legitimate work for a fair price and given customers a chance to cancel contracts.

Terence Maughan was cleared after saying he had no role in speaking to any customers and had merely been a passenger in his cousin’s van.