A con-man builder has been jailed for fleecing customers including a vulnerable pensioner and a recently bereaved widow out of more than £73,000.
Wesley Theobald, 33, used illegitimate tactics to “trap and coerce” homeowners in Norwich, Ashill and Dereham into paying him to carry out unnecessary or shoddily-done work.
The self-employed roofer, who also used the alias Wesley Moriarty, admitted 19 offences including theft and fraud between July 2022 and July 2023.
Jailing him for three years Recorder David Herbert told him: “You brought nothing but misery to these households.”
READ MORE: Rogue trader jailed after taking thousands of pounds from customers
Norwich Crown Court was told one customer had lost her husband the month she employed him to fix a leaking pipe and had been persuaded into handing over almost £60,500 for roof repairs he claimed were urgently needed.
Instead, he had removed tiles leaving her home uninhabitable, while an independent inspection found his botched and incomplete work had been unnecessary and would cost £65,000 to rectify.
Another 73-year-old from Norwich, who initially employed him to repair a garage roof, was left almost £7,000 out of pocket.
And a woman in Dereham lost £4,750 when he said her roof needed to be replaced despite only having been employed to clean it.
Theobald, of Rainsthorpe at South Wootton, King's Lynn, had been released on licence from a jail sentence for previously defrauding customers just weeks before.
READ MORE: Roofer kept ripping off customers AFTER pleading guilty to fraud
Edward Renvoize, prosecuting on behalf of Norfolk Trading Standards, said: “He was trading in a fraudulent manner using illegitimate tactics to coerce people into paying for work that was very poor quality or was not done at all.”
He said he had breached a criminal behaviour order preventing him operating as a builder by using fake details, personal bank accounts, and a business address that was actually a disused farm building.
Stephen Spence, mitigating, said: “This wasn’t money he was simply pocketing. He did employ people and materials were purchased.
“He is not someone who has set out to fleece as many people as possible then just disappear.”
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