A COWBOY builder is facing jail time after he scammed a 90-year-old man to pay nearly £60,000 for gardening work.
Micheal Gorman, 46, snared pensioner Roy Wilcox into paying £42,000 for an artificial grass lawn and £12,500 for fresh concrete paving.
Added fees of £900 and £1,400 covered the chopping down of small trees and a new fence respectively.
Gorman, from Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, took advantage of Mr Wilcox's age to fleece him for the cash, a court heard.
It added that Gorman's scam only aroused suspicion when the pensioner's bank questioned the staggering payments.
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Gorman, who had no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud at Reading Crown Court on January 2 and will appear again in the dock on January 29.
The rogue trader was not jailed immediately to allow him time to arrange care for his ailing mother, who suffers from dementia.
Amber Athill, prosecuting, noted this was "ironic" given Gorman's offence.
"Mr Wilcox lives alone, has no close family and is inherently vulnerable. The defendant took advantage of this," the judge said.
"Between November 2021 and April 2022, he dishonestly and gratuitously overcharged him for gardening works."
Mr Wilcox was duped by the scammer after he spotted an advertisement for a company called MG Garden and Tree Services in Round and About Magazine, the court heard.
Ms Athill said readers were offered a "free quote with expert advice" and "10 per cent off for OAPs".
The judge showed the court photographs of Mr Wilcox's dire living conditions.
Ms Athill said: "It shows how unlikely it was that he would want to spend thousands of pounds on outside works when his inside living conditions were sadly so poor.
"It would be clear to any visitor or tradesman that Mr Wilcox was vulnerable and so an easy target for the defendant to befriend and defraud."
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In a victim impact statement, Mr Wilcox said he felt it was his own fault that he had become a victim of the offence.
He said Gorman was "very friendly and did the work quickly and well".
Mr Wilcox said: "I trusted he would give me a fair price because I did not know the going rate for such work.
"I did not know of any way to check if the cost was reasonable or not. It is my own fault if I did not look into the matter further.
It comes after one couple who forked out £115,000 on their dream family home have been plunged into debt and left living like nomads for 17 months.
The family's life was turned upside down after their rogue builder quit while their hole-filled house was still windowless, damp and uninhabitable.
