Midlands workman locked up over dodgy drives fraud
A cowboy workman who pocketed £15,000 laying shoddy drives at homes across the Black Country was today behind bars.
Patrick Dunne tricked five households into paying for driveways into which cars sank within days of work being finished.
The father of 11 was handed a 15-month prison sentence at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Prosecutor Mark Jackson told the court yesterday: "He ran a fraudulent business and conned and duped his customers in almost every aspect of his dealings with them. He lied about his name, his business address, that works were guaranteed, that his business offered the best in customer care, when payments for work would be requested and what work would be carried out.
"Nothing provided by him revealed either his true identity or a legitimate business address. He failed over and over again to provide customers with information about their right to cancel their contract and the quality of his work was appalling."
Mr Jackson continued: "He is a menace to the community."
The substandard drives were laid in Dudley, Halesowen and Tettenhall between February 2009 and December 2010.
Some people felt intimidated into paying up and the guarantee offered by Dunne, aged 44, from Stafford Road, Coven, was 'not worth the paper it was written on,' the court was told.
When one disgruntled customer finally found a phone number for him that worked her complaint was greeted with laughter by the man who said 'this stupid person thinks I am going to repair their drive' before hanging up, it was claimed.
Mr Jackson added: "Two or three days after a drive was laid people could not park their car on it because it sank into the surface."
Dunne, boss of a firm called J.J. Callaghan, admitted being involved in a business carried on to defraud customers and also pleaded guilty to 12 further fraud charges and eight of misleading commercial practice.
Judge Helen Hughes told him: "This was a pre-planned operation and there is no doubt your customers felt threatened and intimidated. All were induced to use your services by promises of good workmanship, guarantees and so forth, that came to nought."
