A rogue trader has been locked up for more than two years after he admitted carrying out unnecessary work which cost an elderly homeowner more than £25,000.

John Docherty, 42, from Rochester, was jailed for two years and three months, after he pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud relating to work carried out on a 73-year-old’s home in South Gloucestershire.

Docherty, of Rose Street, was jailed at Bristol Crown Court.

The case was investigated by the South Gloucestershire Council’s trading standards team after the work was carried out at a home in Chipping Sodbury.

Docherty, who also uses the names John Casey and Frank, originally targeted the pensioner in May last year when he cold called him.

Docherty identified himself as Frank and told the elderly man he had been working on a neighbouring property and had noticed excessive moss on his roof, which he offered to remove for £350.

The pensioner agreed for the work to be done. Docherty started immediately and a number of men turned up and worked on the property.

Over the course of the next month Docherty reported numerous other problems to the homeowner, which he claimed needed immediate action.

These included repairs to the roof tiles, pointing of walls, strengthening waterlogged roof timbers and strengthening the A-frame in the roof.

Feeling fearful for the condition of his property, the man felt obliged to agree to all of the work being carried out.

All payments were requested in cash and the pensioner was told not to tell the bank why he was withdrawing the money.

In total Docherty was paid £25,800 for this work during that month.

Docherty then approached the pensioner and told him that a further £20,000 of work was necessary on his house in order to replace the damp proof course and for silicone injections in brick work.

He pressurised him to have this work done and told him that if he didn’t, he would report him to the local authority as someone who was living in a property unfit for human habitation.

He also refused to continue with other work already paid for until the £20,000 was paid.

Trading Standards worked with Avon and Somerset Police and acting on a tip off, an officer was waiting at the property when Docherty went there in June last year, thinking he would be collecting the £20,000 cash.

Docherty was arrested and identified by the pensioner as Frank who he had paid all cash to.

When Docherty was charged with these offences, he fled to Ireland and failed to appear at court for the initial hearing in October.

The trading standards team had to apply for a European Arrest Warrant in order to bring Docherty to justice.

He was finally arrested by Police in Hampshire in September this year on an unrelated matter, and he was taken into custody in Bristol where he remained until his court appearance.

During the investigation the trading standards team commissioned a surveyor report on the work done at the property.

The surveyor concluded it was difficult to justify why any of the work undertaken was deemed necessary and that workmanship was very poor.

In particular, the damp proof course did not need replacing and the surveyor valued the work done at a mere £1,400.

Prosecution costs, compensation and Proceeds of Crime Act matters will be dealt with at a later hearing.