News

Rogue trader jailed for eight years

By Laura Herbert
June 28, 2012

A rogue trader who preyed on elderly and vulnerable people by taking money for building work he didn't complete has been jailed.

Carl Davies was jailed for eight years following a trial at Reading Crown Court.

He was convicted by a jury of five counts of fraud and four counts of theft. He was cleared of two further counts of fraud and three counts of theft.

Davies, of Trowes Lane in Swallowfield, was jailed at the same court yesterday.

The offences took places in Ascot in Berkshire, Iver in Buckinghamshire, as well as Sutton, Twickenham and Richmond, between 2008 and 2010. During that time he stole up to £115,000.

Davies would cold call residents and offer to complete building or landscaping work, regularly taking money for the jobs up front. He would then either complete the job to a poor standard or leave the work unfinished, and on some occasions he would take the money and fail to return without completing any work at all.

He was arrested in Surrey in September 2010 following a two-year inquiry by police and Trading Standards.

Sentencing, Judge Ross described Davies as a "professional criminal" who made a living out of defrauding money from others.

He said: “You were prepared to plunder all the savings of the elderly and the vulnerable.”

Investigating officer Det Con Sarah Manning, of CID in Loddon Valley, said: “Carl Davies had no consideration for his victims and would steal money from them without conscience. On one occasion he stole money from a woman whose husband had recently died.

“This was an extremely long and complex investigation involving several police forces working together in order to apprehend Davies and charge him with these offences.

“He has made a living from being dishonest and taking money away from vulnerable people and has shown no remorse at any time during the investigation.

“He is now serving a prison sentence as a consequence of his actions and I hope this sentence acts as a warning to others that police are committed to tackling offences such as this, and will always seek to bring offenders to justice.

“I would urge people to be aware of cold calling and not feel pressurised into accepting work offered by cold callers. If anyone has concerns about a cold caller they should call police or Trading Standards.

“If you accept work from a cold caller you should ensure you obtain a written receipt or invoice and do not pay the full fee for the work upfront.”

Davies was jailed for seven years and six months for the fraud and theft offences and six months for breaching a suspended prison sentence from 2008.

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When I saw this picture, I actually thought it was Gervais! (As a few have already mentioned)

Miss Merry, The 'ding
02/07/2012 at 09:38

If we had more jail capacity, maybe we could lock criminals up for a worthwhile length of time that might be a deterrant to recidivism. Could also deport all the foreign nationals (11000 plus at the last count, approx 1 in 8 of total) in our prisons to free up a substantial total.

I Ron
29/06/2012 at 08:50

I often wonder who was responsible for sentencing guidelines in the country.

It seems if you take a life, like the text driver and the hit and run driver, then somehow you are sentenced to a few years, yet scam a little cash out of someone and get 11 yrs.

Please don't get me wrong, this scum bag deserves double that amount of time, all I am suggesting is sentences fit the crime of which you have been convicted.

Such as;

Murder - Life inside Accidentally kill someone, 25yrs Rape - 40yrs Rape of a minor - life burglary - 15yrs selling drugs 50 yrs Terrorism - life

And none of this early parole crap, get a sentence of 20 yrs, serve 20 yrs!!!!! That seems much more agreeable.

The Racing Snake
29/06/2012 at 00:58

Apparently the guys from the BBC's "Rogue Traders" were seen in Goring at the end of last year. Perhaps that was in connection with this.

Jellybeanz, I can see your point, and I certainly agree that this parasite should have got 8 years. But regarding the text driving incident, the woman in question at least didn't intend to cause any harm. She was certainly negligent, but she didn't deliberately kill, and there was more than a little bad luck involved. Many others must have done what she did (especially when young) and got away with it, or at least "only" injured someone. It was one moment of madness, albeit one which cannot be easily forgiven and which had devastating consequences.

Whereas this guy (who does indeed look a bit like Ricky Gervais!) fully intended to do what he did, and kept on doing it repeatedly over a long period of time, with no apparent remorse. Certainly in terms of malicious intent, he wins hands down against the text driver.

Generally speaking, the law does seem to come down harder on those who have evil intentions and cause moderate distress to their victims (in the general scheme of things), than on those who are simply stupid or negligent but cause death or extreme distress due in part to bad luck, coincidence or freak circumstances. This seems right to me. Only a persistent scumbag could have done what this guy did; the text driving thing could in theory have been done by someone who'd been a model citizen until that point and had just been stupid on the spur of the moment.

Hope the above makes sense! I'm sure I could have said it a lot more succinctly, but it's too late at night for me to be bothered to refine it.

David Trent
28/06/2012 at 22:45

Interesting comparison.

The girl texting was doing something really dumb but there's no way you could say she meant to hit and kill someone.

This bloke deliberately targeted the elderly to try to scam them out of as much as possible.

Eight years is a good sentence I think.

Megaman
28/06/2012 at 18:12

Great to see this vile creature banged up where he belongs,let's hope he gets a very warm welcome indeed!

Dustybin, Reading
28/06/2012 at 17:48

Investigating officer Det Con Sarah Manning, of CID in Loddon Valley. there are more to come. TV Rogue trader the bikeman, as just been done for housing rent fraud .well done to all.

trevor nixon
28/06/2012 at 16:35

Jellybeanz - I was thinking just the same.

Maybe the liberal, human-rights obsessed poster on that thread will leap to the defence of this toe-rag. Or is he defending that woman from a personal viewpoint?

Tru Blue NoMore, WOKINGHAM
28/06/2012 at 16:31

scumbag glad we refused to serve him building materials 5yrs ago plus

last chance saloon
28/06/2012 at 16:02

well, my last commented was completely stripped, making me sound like im a narrator opening a new film called 'Rogue Trader'

This man has been defrauding people his whole life, and i really hope all his assets are seized and pawned off for the victims.

Readingguy, Reading
28/06/2012 at 15:50

So this bloke gets 8 years but the girl who killed that poor woman because she was texting while driving gets 30 months??

How does that make sense?

I don't think this bloke deserves any less that 8 years by the way. I think he's evil scum and deserves everything he gets.

Jellybeanz
28/06/2012 at 15:48

Ah but his mother loves him

Georger, RG30
28/06/2012 at 15:19

He is pure filth. I wanted revenge, but deep down, i knew there was nothing i could do.

Readingguy, Reading
28/06/2012 at 15:09

wooooooooooooow. This mug. He got me for £3000. He used to sell cars, was very convincing, anyways, he conned me into handing him over money, because he was going to a car auction in Cardiff (He had sold a few cars to my dad over the years already) so i foolishly gave him the money when i was 17, he said he would by my a Vauxhall Corsa. Of course, it never materialised, he spent months promising that the car was on its way to me. I left it, because it was cash, so my own fault. SCUMMMMMM!!!!