A 'cold and calculating' husband and wife team who were part of a band of rogue traders have been jailed after defrauding elderly residents out of almost £400,000.
Police said after a sentencing hearing that the victims were 'made to feel unsafe in their own homes' and 'left in fear of what would happen if they didn't pay'.
Andrew Lovell, 43, Madeline Lovell, 41, and Kevin Brown, 61, held their victims 'to ransom', a court was told, while carrying out substandard work on homes that wasn't necessary.
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Police said the trio charged residents 'extortionate' prices - their victims felt 'powerless, frustrated and embarrassed'. Officers from Cheshire Police began investigating their operations in 2022, using the group's finances and communications to link them to their crimes.
And footage showed officers using a saw to cut through the door of married Andrew and Madeline Lovell's joint home in Coppice Green, Elton, Cheshire, during a raid when they were arrested. A safe was opened and a white van, displaying the words 'M and A Roofing' towed away.
The pair both pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and money laundering, with Andrew Lovell getting four years and six months in prison and Madeline Lovell two years and three months.
Kevin Brown, from Llys Ont Y Felin in Mold, pleaded guilty to the same offences and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Detectives from Cheshire Constabulary's Economic Crime Unit (ECU) began investigating reports of rogue traders operating in the Cheshire and Merseyside areas in 2022.
The defendants, said the force, would persuade their victims that work was required on their home, and in most cases no work was needed.
A spokesman said: "A detailed investigation was carried out by the Economic Crime which utilised an array of police tactics including forensic analysis of financial, telecom and ANPR data to link these suspects to the crimes they had committed.
"An independent chartered surveyor was brought in to detail the losses to each victim in his separate reports. He noted that the work was extremely poor and in some case wasn’t required."
Following their hearing at Chester Crown Court on June 27, Det Con Gareth Yates of Cheshire Police, said they'd left their victims 'powerless, frustrated and embarrassed'.
He said: "These elderly residents were in essence held to ransom by these cold and calculating defendants. They were made to feel they had no option but to pay, for often shoddy work, at highly inflated prices.
"The Economic Crime Unit was determined to catch the offenders who were preying on members of the community, who were often having to break into their life savings to pay these individuals off.
"They knew they’d been defrauded, but were unable to fight back, they felt powerless, frustrated, and embarrassed. They were made to feel unsafe in their own home and left in fear of what would happen if they didn’t pay."
