Two fraudsters who were part of a scam involving nearly £500,000 targeting vulnerable householders have been jailed.

The gang conned cash from mainly pensioners – two aged in their 80s and 90s – with bogus roofing contracts in north Kent.

A judge heard how one even posed as a police officer to bully their victim into handing over cheques – threatening they would get a judge to lock him up if he refused.

Prosecutor Bridget Todd told Maidstone Crown Court that victims paid money for unnecessary and often shoddy work, mainly to roofs.

Now Sonny Maughan, 29, of Brakefield Road, Southfleet, near Gravesend, and pal Emmanuel Scarrott, 28, of Basildon, Essex, have been banned from going to any house in the UK to offer building or maintenance services.

They are also prohibited from pushing fliers through letterboxes after a judge called their behaviour "truly despicable" and said it had brought shame on their families.

Recorder Alan Gardner said: "You took advantage of vulnerable and often elderly people, persuading them to part with large sums of money. These were organised, sophisticated and planned offences."

The court heard how one frightened victim was tricked into handing over cash for a fictitious court case – and the conmen then threatened that if he didn't pay the money he would have to go to court and explain to a judge.

The two admitted a charge of conspiracy to defraud involving three victims in 2020, a 66-year-old from Lordswood, Chatham, a 90-year-old man from Southfleet who has since died, and a man in his 70s from Herne Bay.

The 66-year-old was tricked by Maughan, posing as a Scotland Yard police officer, into believing he was to receive compensation for earlier bogus work but then told if he did not pay up, he would receive no compensation and would be arrested and "thrown into a cell".

The two were eventually caught when police tried to stop their vehicle but they drove away. Officers later found documents relating to the fraud in the vehicle.

Maughan also admitted defrauding an 85-year-old victim from Gravesend in the summer of 2020 into handing over £142,000 after he tricked her into believing she needed extensive work on a roof.

Ms Todd said that in a sinister twist the fraudsters also secretly took photographs of one victim signing the cheques while "looming over her".

A surveyor later said the work should have cost only £30,000, plus VAT. Another victim handed over more than £160,000 for unnecessary work.

Scarrott was jailed for a total of four years and father-of-two Maughan for five years.

Both now face proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) to reclaim the money.