Rogue trader who preyed on elderly in West Berkshire jailed
A rogue trader preying on the old and vulnerable in West Berkshire and Bracknell has been jailed for 38 months.
He had cold called fourteen properties offering free camera surveys of their drains and sewer pipes – charging one household £21k for work that would normally cost £3,600 and caused such damage that the entire drainage system had to dug up and be replaced.
Daniel Fidler, 30, from Poole in Dorset was this week sentenced at Reading Crown Court after pleading guilty to seven counts of fraud and seven counts of unfair trading.
In each case he said he had found problems like cracks in the pipes or tree roots growing into the pipes and in some instances he claimed that failure to have work carried out to fix these problems would result in much bigger problems in the future.
In some cases Mr Fidler would offer to line the pipes with a resin using a stent, quoting high prices which consumers felt obliged to pay.
In most cases, the work was either not needed or poorly executed and in more than one case the work actually blocked the pipes.
In another case he was paid £6,912 and not only did an expert witness find the drains were in a serviceable condition, they could not find any lining.
The victims that the charges related to were aged between 78 and 90 years and some had clearly identified vulnerabilities and in some cases were living alone.
In sentencing Mr Fidler, His Honour Judge Burgess QC stated these were ‘mean, nasty offences’.
In addition a timetable was set for confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The proceedings followed a lengthy and complex investigation by officers from the Public Protection Partnership (PPP) Trading Standards Service which operates across West Berkshire, Bracknell and Wokingham.