Two Hartlepool fraudsters scammed pensioners over bogus repair work on their homes

Heartless Jack Heywood, 23, and Jamie Gascoigne, 30, both from Hartlepool, travelled to Guisborough and Stockton to target elderly householders with signs of dementia.

Heywood defrauded a Guisborough man in his 70s of over £65,000 in 2018 before he was rumbled by neighbours who saw him deliberately causing damage to his home.

They noted the registration of his van and pick-up and Redcar and Cleveland Trading Standards and the police carried out investigations.

The victim could not recall what work had been done or how much he had paid, but bank records showed the extent of the scam.

A qualified surveyor said that the incomplete work was worth no more than £350 or for a completed job no more than £950, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Gascoigne targeted a Stockton woman suffering from dementia and tricked her out of £1,675 over eight visits in the same period.

She was in hospital when her daughter confronted him. A surveyor said that the work Gascoigne claimed to have done was not fit for purpose and had a negligible value of not more than £20, said prosecutor Paul Rooney. She had to pay a lot more for repairs to it.

He said: "This is an example of crimes that have become all too common in this area, vulnerable elderly people deliberately targeted and preyed upon by villains who know exactly what they are doing.”

Mr Rooney added: “A decision has been made that there will be no Proceeds of Crime Application in this case.”

Heywood is serving eight and a half years for assault with intent to rob, and Gascoigne is serving three years for making false representations in almost identical circumstances.

Ian West, defending Haywood, said: “He has been transferred to hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983 and he is likely to remain there for some time before being transferred back to prison to complete his sentence.”

Rod Hunt, defending Gascoigne, said: “He has been serving a sentence during the Covid crisis and he is now being sentenced for an offence which was committed before it.”

Judge Stephen Ashurst told the pair: “Undoubtedly your sentences would have been longer if you had been sentenced for all matters by the same judge.”

Heywood, of Cundall Road, Hartlepool, was jailed for two years consecutively to the eight and a half years he is serving after he pleaded guilty to fraud and two charges of converting criminal property, and Gascoigne of Greenwood Road, Hartlepool, was jailed for 12 months consecutively to three years he is serving after he pleaded guilty to fraud and converting criminal property.

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