THE ringleader of a team of rogue builders who conned vulnerable householders in Kent out of more than £800,000 has had his jail sentence cut by top judges on appeal.

William Smith Snr, 39, of Carlton Avenue, Greenhithe, intimidated and frightened his victims in Dartford, Gravesend, Hartley, Chatham, Tunbridge Wells and Thanet in his "despicable quest to relieve vulnerable people of as much money as possible".

Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud in January last year, and the judge sentencing him at Canterbury Crown Court last September said he had "showed no mercy" to his victims and deserved more than the eight years and four months he passed on him.

Despite this, on Friday, Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, Mr Justice Treacy and Mrs Justice Slade reduced the sentence to seven-and-a-half years at London's Criminal Appeal Court.

The court heard that Smith's method was to tell the householder their roof and chimney were defective and needed immediate work, quoting a price which would then be inflated when Smith claimed his workmen had found other serious faults.

A 46-year-old Margate man with learning difficulties paid £75,000 and a vulnerable Dartford man paid £101,500.

Smith operated from January 2003 to September 2007, cold-calling people, with 43 households falling victim to him.

Mrs Justice Slade, giving the judgement "reluctantly" concluded that, in the light of indications given by the sentencing judge before Smith pleaded guilty, an eight-year four-month term was too long.

She said: "He showed these victims no mercy, but the judge had indicated that this defendant would receive at least 25 per cent credit for his guilty plea.

"The maximum sentence for the offence to which he pleaded guilty was 10 years.

"The judge was in effect bound to pass a maximum sentence of seven-and-a-half years."

Also jailed, for three years was Smith's son Billy Nelson Smith, right, 21, of Green Street Green Road, Dartford, and Timothy Killick, 35, of Stagshaw Close, Maidstone, for four-and-a-half years, whose company William Smith used to launder cheques.

Killick also wrote invoices for the illiterate Smith, who admitted conspiracy to defraud. His son admitted money laundering, attempted deception and fraud. Killick admitted money laundering, deception and fraud.