A CONMAN who preyed on a Ferrybridge pensioner has been jailed for two years.
Dad-of-seven Kevin Rogers, 40, of Brierley, attempted to trick the 82-year-old woman into paying for roof damage he had deliberately caused at her home.
Jailing him for two years at Leeds Crown Court on Friday, Judge Paul Hoffman said: “This is no
t a way to support your seven children.
“You have got to support them honestly – not by preying on the community.”
Ian Brook, prosecuting, told the court Rogers visited the elderly woman and told her some of the ridge tiles on her roof were loose on October 16 last year. The pensioner told him there was nothing wrong with them, but he ignored her and got a ladder and climbed up to the roof where neighbours saw him prising one off.
When Rogers showed her the damaged tile, the woman told him she knew he had cracked it himself – but he insisted he would go and buy tiles and return to do the work, mentioning the sum of £30. He left his son-in-law Barry Price, 20, with the woman and told him to clear up the mess on the roof.
However, concerned neighbours had called the police who arrived and arrested him.
Mr Brook said: “The woman was terribly upset and distressed and was repeatedly saying: ‘Why has he come to my house?’
“She said if the police hadn’t have come she would have paid the sum asked because she was scared.”
Price gave police a false name and told police his boss was called John Lee, but Rogers was arrested a few days later.
The court heard that while waiting for the trial, a friend of Rogers’, Debra Wilson, 43, visited the woman at her home. Mr Brook said she told her Rogers had 17 or 18 character witnesses and there was no point in her giving evidence. She said she had been a witness in the past and it was awful going to court.
The pensioner – who was ‘scared’– contacted Witness Services and the police were informed.
When arrested, Wilson said she had known Rogers for 17 years and had visited the pensioner ‘of her own volition’.
Daniel Thomas, mitigating, said Rogers had a wife and seven children to support. “He is a man who’s illiterate and has expressed a wish to write to the victim, but is unable to do so,” he said.
The court heard Price married Rogers’ daughter at the age of 19 and the pair have a three-month-old daughter.
Price and Rogers, both of Common Road, Brierley, admitted fraud and causing damage.
Jailing Rogers, the judge said: “You upset and distressed the woman and she would have caved if the police hadn’t come along.”
Handing Price a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, the judge added: “I am told you have no previous convictions and it is a reasonable inference you came under the influence of your father-in-law.”
Price – who offered to pay the victim £500 to repair any damage – was also ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.
Wilson, of Broomhill Avenue, Knottingley, was jailed for six months for intimidating a witness.
