A FRAUDULENT builder who conned elderly people out of more than £80,000 has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Rogue trader Darren Geary, 32, of Collingwood Road, Colchester, was part of a gang ripping off vulnerable people by pretending work was needed on their homes.

The scam drove victims, aged in their seventies and eighties, to despair and one to attempt suicide.

Geary admitted four counts of fraud by false representation.

Joe Bird, prosecuting, said: “All were committed against elderly, vulnerable people.”

The gang would start with some minor work, such as gutter clearance, and would then pretend substantial repair work was needed on the roof.

The first victims were a couple in Ruislip, Middlesex conned out of £20,400 in June 2013.

Alan Ford, 81, spent his life savings and took out an £8,000 loan to pay the workmen, including Geary, before his son found out and stopped them. Mr Ford took an overdose.

Another man, Alan Ellis, from Wivenhoe, was conned out of £25,000 for work carried out in August and September the same year.

David Sibley, 72, from Coggeshall, was conned out of £750 before realising what was happening in October and November 2013.

The fourth victim, Michael Tuft, from Colchester, spent £37,500 including handing some of the money to Geary between November and December.

Stephen Rose, mitigating, said Geary was part of the gang and not the ringleader.

He said: “He knows he has played a part in something that has caused a lot of harm and distress to the families involved.

The way he has behaved is highly disreputable.”

Mr Rose claimed Geary was working for £100-a-day and only realised the overcharging at a later stage and did not profit greatly from it.

However, he did continue taking part in the scam run by a man called “Jason” who has not been brought to justice.

Judge Patricia Lynch QC, sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday said: “I accept youwere not the primary mover, but by your own admission you could see these were vulnerable people and you knew they were being cheated badly.

“They don’t deserve difficulties like these in their lives when in their seventies and eighties.”

The con artist and spurned lover was also jailed for harassing his former partners.

Geary was jailed for three months and given a second restraining order for his treatment of girlfriends in
Colchester.

The sentence will be added to his jail sentence for fraud making a total of 33 months.

In December, Geary was given a two-month jail sentence for harassment and a restraining order.

The sentence was suspended. 

The next month he started dating another woman, but by March they had split up and he began harassing her.

Joe Bird, prosecuting, said: “It was a campaign of harassment – 20 voicemails per day.”

Geary also visited her home and called and threatened to visit her workplace, an estate agents in Halstead.

Geary admitted his second count of harassment against a second girlfriend, between March and
April, and was given his second restraining order in less than a year.

He was jailed for a month for the latest harassment, his initial two month sentence was activated and both will run consecutively to each other and consecutively to the fraud
sentence.