A judge said the father-and-son builders had ruthlessly manipulated their victims to extract as much money as possible from them
Damp caused by shoddy roofing work done by ‘cowboy builders’ Jim Janes and Thomas James(Image: Newport Council)
A father-and-son team of cowboy builders bullied, intimidated and scammed homeowners out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, a court has heard.
Jim Janes and his son, Thomas James, targeted people across south and west Wales – many of them elderly and vulnerable, and some in poor health – leaving a trail of misery, debt and shoddy work behind them as they extorted money from customers.
Swansea Crown Court heard that when the pair were questioned or challenged about what they were doing they would become aggressive and confrontational, and in one case a customer was threatened with a “gypsy war” unless money was handed over.
Jailing the pair of eight years each, the judge told them their behaviour had been “marked by a cruel callousness” and said it was clear they had “no regard for the impact on decent people whose lives have been shattered”.
Lee Reynolds, prosecuting, told the court that during the course of the offending the defendants traded under multiple different company names, used fake personal names, changed phone numbers, and took payments into different bank accounts in an attempt to hide what they were doing. For the latest court stories sign up to our crime newsletter
He said the offending often followed a similar pattern with the defendants providing a quote for what was usually a fairly minor roofing job but then after the work began they would claim to have uncovered major problems for which they would demand ever larger sums of money in order to fix.
Sometimes the defendants would strip the roof without permission and leave properties open to the elements before threatening to walk off the job unless their demands for more cash were met.
The prosecutor said many of the dozens of victims of the defendants were people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s.
The court heard that when customers queried the work or challenged the new quotes they would be met with aggressive and intimidating behaviour, and in one case a customer was threatened with a “gypsy war” unless they paid up.
An example of the shoddy roofing work done by the father and son defendants(Image: Newport Council)
Many of the customers felt they had no choice but to hand over the money being demanded, and some homeowners paid the defendants tens of thousands of pounds. One customer lost £100,000 to the father-and-son fraudsters.
The court heard that what work the defendants did was shoddy and of poor quality, and many jobs they started were left unfinished.
The prosecutor said that when a reputable builder stepped in to do remedial work on the house of one of the victims he was “horrified” by what the pair had done and said it was “clear they didn’t have an idea of the fundamental basics of roofing work”. The tradesman called the pair “nothing short of cowboys masquerading as professional builders”.
Surveyors brought in to examine some of the jobs done by the defendants concluded that the additional works they had charged customers for were completely unnecessary.
As well as the money paid to the scammers, many of the homeowners had to fork out thousands of pounds to put right the work the pair had done and damage they had caused.
The court heard that the offending continued for five-and-a-half years and netted the defendants almost half-a-million pounds, with the pair continuing to offend after being arrested and bailed.
The prosecutor said the defendants were “not just dishonest builders but were bad builders” who were not capable of doing the work they claimed they could do. He said they were running a fraudulent business.
Many of the defendants’ victims had to spend thousands of pounds repairing the damage they caused(Image: Newport Crown Court)
In a series of statements read to the court by the prosecution barrister, the victims of Janes and James described the impact of their offending. One woman described how she had to borrow money, take out loans, and re-mortgage the family home to cover the cost of what the defendants did and said it drove her to the brink of bankruptcy.
Many of the victims talked about having been manipulated, bullied, extorted, and intimidated by the scammers, and one reported being threatened with a “gypsy war” unless demands for cash were made.
A lot of the victims talked about their guilt and shame at having been conned, and they said they now found it hard to trust any tradesman.
Jim Janes, aged 55, and Thomas Michael Jim James, aged 37, both of Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, had both previously pleaded guilty to engaging in fraudulent trading when they appeared in the dock for sentencing. Janes has two previous convictions – described as “antiquated and dissimilar” – and James has no previous convictions.
Tim Naylor, for Janes, said the defendant was someone who had worked hard all his life and, without any formal training, had learned the skills of the building trade on the job. He said the defendant no longer wants to run his own business and wishes to make amends for what he has done.
Owen Williams, for James, said in his submission his client had not been “the leader of this enterprise”. He said the defendant grew up in the traveller community and left school at the age of eight, and was a father-of-two. He said James no longer wants to live in south Wales with links to his extended family and wishes to move to England and lead a “free-crime life”.
Judge Catherine Richards said the defendants’ offending had been “marked by a cruel callousness” and it was clear they “had no regard for the impact on decent people whose lives have been shattered”. She told them they had been “ruthless in the way you manipulated the victims” and said their aim had been to “extract as much money as possible” from those unfortunate to become involved with them.
With discounts for their guilty pleas the defendants were each sentenced to eight years in prison. They will serve 40 per cent of the sentences in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
A further hearing will be held on May 22 next year to consider proceeds of crime applications, and serious crime prevention orders.
Speaking after the sentencing, Lord Michael Bichard, chairman of National Trading Standards, said: “In their own homes, victims were intimidated and pressured into paying tens of thousands of pounds for building work that was unnecessary and, in many cases, left their homes in dangerous conditions requiring expensive repairs.
“This sentence demonstrates that these crimes – and the aggressive and dishonest tactics used – will not be tolerated. I hope this sentence provides some semblance of justice for the victims.”
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