A chance phone call from their grandson saved an elderly Birchington couple from being conned by rogue builders. Speaking after the trio was jailed at Canterbury Crown Court, 90-year-old Evelyn Wackett and her husband Bernard, 87, who is blind, told how they were being pressured into having work carried out on their roof at Ocean Close when their grandson Kevin phoned them.

“I just said to him I would have to go as there were builders here,” said Mrs Wackett.

She gave him the firm’s details and how much they were charging and he checked them out on the internet. When he couldn’t find out anything his suspicions were aroused.

“Kevin seemed concerned and called back two minutes later to say the police were on their way,” added Mrs Wackett.

Within minutes four police cars and two vans had blocked off the cul-de-sac and arrested four men. Luckily, the couple hadn’t handed over any money but could have lost thousands of pounds.

Mr Wackett, a retired millwright, said: “It was like something out of a TV drama. They were here very quickly.”

Mrs Wackett said: “It was all very frightening and I wondered what we had done wrong. A woman officer asked me to look out of the window and all these police cars were outside. She told me we had done the police a big favour.”

Concerned

The first police knew about the work of William Smith and his gang was in March 2006 when staff at the NatWest bank in Margate became concerned that a man with learning disabilities was making large withdrawals.

In total they conned forty eight year old John Milford from Cliftonville, and his family, out of £90,000. Mr Milford first had work done by Smith in August 2004, paying £12,500 for a crooked drainpipe and chimney repointing. The work was unnecessary and should have cost no more than £750 anyway.

The rogues returned in February 2006 and a month later bank staff contacted Thanet police, worried at the amounts of money Mr Milford was taking out of NatWest. He had told the deputy manager he needed £30,000 to pay builders. Detectives were waiting at Mr Milford’s home when Mark Baker came to collect the cash.

At the time Mr Milford lived with his elderly mother. The gang did not need to use physical violence, the threat of a health inspector condemning his home was enough. In reality, they hammered wooden batons to the roof, the nails damaging the felt and the wood restricting drainage.

Nightmare scenario

The gang cruelly exploited Mr Milford’s trusting nature with tales of nightmare scenarios in his home, including dead fish in the chimney, rats in the loft and four different types of woodworm having first thrown down live fishing bait to create the illusion of an infestation.

To bump up the bills further, the tales became taller, the builders telling mother and son that the materials required would have to come from Wales, Scotland, even bricks from China.

Thanet Council surveyor Paul Morgan examined the property during the police investigation and found none of the work was required and what had been done was woefully poor. Old boarding was attached to roof trusses and timbers to make it appear as if strengthened. Watered down creosote, dangerous if used indoors, was passed off as technologically advanced material to safeguard the house.

In a statement from Kent police, Mr Milford said: “How kind they were to take me for a £4 breakfast before driving me to the bank for me to withdraw thousands of pounds for them.”

He gave evidence at the trial and is pleased justice has been done, thanking police for the support he has received.

Mr Milford added: “I did not want any trouble. I wanted to keep the peace and these things they were saying preyed on my mind. I would say that 99 per cent of workers are OK, but it’s the one out of 100 who you have to be careful of. I don’t want anybody else to go through this.”

See "Rogue builders jailed for conning £800,000 from elderly and vulnerable victims" for full court case