A rogue trader who conned elderly residents out of thousands of pounds has been jailed for one year. Mark Johnson, 38, of Cadbury Heath, trading as Warmley Building Services, admitted four counts of fraud under the Fraud Act 2006 and one offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 at Bath Magistrates Court at the beginning of the month. He returned to court yesterday for sentencing.
As we reported in The Week In (Issue 291), Johnson took a deposit from one elderly lady in Summer 2012 for conversion work on her house but never started the job, at one point claiming that his daughter had died. In another case he took a deposit from a local resident to build a porch and despite concerns she expressed over the standard of the work, he threatened to knock it down if he did not receive the £3500 quoted for the job. Afterwards, an independent surveyor estimated the cost of putting the work right on the porch was £8000.
