Cheat who promised to pay back victims with help of Nigerian president is jailed

Builder Mark Ware continued to trade for four months after his business encountered financial trouble in January 2010, leaving homeowners in Stourbridge, Dudley and Hagley thousands of pounds out of pocket.

Ware took deposits from customers for work that was started and never finished, while he also failed to pay suppliers, carpenters and plumbers he had hired for jobs.

Ware, of Sutton Coldfield, pleaded guilty to three charges of VAT fraud and two of fraudulent trading earlier this year.

He was due to be sentenced in June, and then again in July, but the case was adjourned as the court heard that Ware was involved in a multi-million pound deal with the Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan.

The deal would have earned Ware £2 million in bonuses which he could have used to pay off the debt, but he was sent to prison after Birmingham Crown Court heard on Tuesday that the deal had not been completed.

Judge Mary Stacey said the builder had been 'utterly reckless' in the way he dealt with the victims.

She told him: "You have swung us along for many months with the hope and expectation of being put into funds so that people could be paid back.

"It turned out to be a hollow promise."

Prosecutor Nicholas Cole told the court Ware launched four firms and took on building contracts in 2006.

He could no longer pay his debts by January 2010 but continued trading for four months.

Mr Cole said there were concerns about some of the work and householders lost a total of £157,995.

He said the builder also included VAT in some of the quotations when he was not VAT registered.

Mr Cole also told the court the victims felt "betrayed" and some had been left with health problems.

Martin Butterworth, defending, said he accepted liabilities of up to £100,000.

He added: "This whole venture was misconceived, that is, moving into an industry of which he had no experience."

Speaking after the sentence, one of the victims, David Jerrom, said: "Most people that have been affected are very angry at what they see to be the leniency of the sentence.

"I think the judge has made the correct decision in the circumstances. He took lumps of money off people for building projects that never happened.

"He has taken thousands of pounds off people and has ruined their lives. He took £12,000 from me. It has taken us four years to bring this to court."

Mr Jerrom, of Oldswinford, said a number of Ware's victims had come together to help bring him to court, with the help of local MPs Margot James and Sajid Javid and a group called Scam Busters.

Another victim, Peter Mitchelson, from Hagley, said: "This shouldn't have taken four years to crawl through the justice system.

"If someone had walked into Oldswinford Post Office and stolen £160,000 they would get five years in prison, and that's what Ware should have got."