A roofer has been fined £10,000 for feeding his gambling habit with customer deposits, without completing the work promised.
Leon Mann, from Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, was also handed down a 16-month suspended sentence, Lincolnshire Live reports.
He admitted 12 offences following a nine-month investigation by Lincolnshire Trading Standards.
The agency received a number of complaints about Mann and his company, Gainsborough Roofing.
The tradesman had been found to take 50 per cent deposits of between £500 to £2,750 upfront without carrying out any work.
He would claim the money was for materials and to secure start dates, but then he would spend the dosh on online gambling sites.
When customers enquired about unfinished work, Mann would produce numerous excuses, such as family illness, adverse weather, vehicle problems and Covid.
According to Trading Standards, some victims said they initially found Mann charming, but he became aggressive and intimidating when they had to start chasing him up on work. In one case, Mann took more than £2,000 from a family to repair a leaking roof, but subsequently failed to carry out any of this work.
At the time, one of the occupants of the property was going through cancer treatment.
Today Mann was handed down his sentence at Lincoln Crown Court.
He has been given a 16-month custodial sentence, suspended for two years; ordered to pay compensation totalling £9,410 within six months, and; ordered to pay £2,500 to the prosecution within 12 months.
Senior trading standards officer at Lincolnshire Trading Standards, Tara Carter, said: "I’m pleased that the judge has recognised the severity of Mr Mann’s crimes and the impact he’s had on his victims, and most of them will be getting their money back.”
“At the time of the offences, starting from December 2019 up to May 2021, Leon Mann was trading as Gainsborough Roofing. And, since December 2020, he was aware he was being investigated but still continued taking victims' money with either no intention of doing any work, or doing work to shoddy standards.”
