A fraudster who swindled two women in their 70s out of almost £10,000 with shoddy, unnecessary or non-existent work is today behind bars.
John Mace - trading as Top 2 Bottom Home Improvements - charged one pensioner £2,055 for roof work and to fit two windows and a door.
She paid an extra £1,885 for work which he said would last for 20 years, Teesside Crown Court heard from prosecutor Rebecca Brown.
But the 30-year-old failed to finish the jobs in November 2012 - and the doors and one window never arrived at the customer’s Stockton home.
When the customer called him, Mace claimed he had broken his leg. He stopped answering calls and emails after she requested a refund.
An expert later said she received “at best a very poor and wholly inadequate DIY job” for her £3,945.
The pointing and cladding work was “not fit for purpose” and the garage roof repairs were “wholly unwarranted”.
Mace later told investigators he was “embarrassed” by the work and claimed doors were supplied to him by “bad men”.
He charged a second woman £5,550 to install solar panels at her home in Coulby Newham in May last year.
At one point Mace asked for another £1,700 from the woman, but she refused.
The work was never done and the customer could not contact him.
She even resorted to driving around the area where she thought he lived to find him.
Ms Brown said the two vulnerable victims in their 70s paid a total of £9,490 to the conman.
She said the first was caused “significant distress” while the other said she lost confidence and felt nervous in her home.
Mace, of Kildare Street, Ayresome, Middlesbrough, admitted three counts of fraud and two of recklessly engaging in a commercial practice against unfair trading regulations, his first convictions.
David Lamb, defending, said: “The defendant wishes me primarily to apologise on his behalf to both victims.
“John Mace stands before the court thoroughly ashamed and embarrassed by his actions.
“He’s reached the age of 30 without troubling the courts before.
"For some years he traded successfully with many happy customers.”
Mr Lamb said Mace was in a legitimate business and did not deliberately target victims, but acted through “a mixture of his own dishonesty and a desire to bite off more than he could chew”.
He told how the dad-of-two abandoned any hope of future self-employment since his arrest and lived a simple life.
Mace got a job, saved money and brought £300 compensation to court with him.
Judge Tony Briggs said he, Mace, promised work to the two women: “That work either turned out to be non-existent or, when done, was done badly.
“This has all the hallmarks of a business under significant financial pressure being financed by customers who were likely to complain least, or would not have the energy to do a great deal about it.
“It is plain that they were seriously affected by your activities.”
Judge Briggs jailed Mace for a year and ordered him to pay £300 compensation.
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