Building firm fraudsters jailed for 11 years over £800k scam
- Published
(L to R) Brian Tutton, Scott Baker and David Gogo were behind a scam that netted over £800,000
Two men who made more than £800,000 through a fraudulent home improvement company have been sentenced to a total of 11 years.
Brian Tutton, who is 62 and from Ashford, Kent, was sentenced to 7 years when he appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
Scott Baker, 50, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, received 4 years.
David Gogo, 30 and from London, who posed as their architect, was sentenced to 14 months, suspended for two years.
He was also ordered to carry out 160 hours community service.
The court heard how Tutton and Baker, who also had links to Brighton, scammed 61 victims out of £831,170 through their firm Contemporary Home Improvements Ltd, with Tutton as the company's director and Baker described as "principal salesman".
The prosecution described how the company was fraudulent from the outset, offering to undertake work they had no intention of carrying out, while passing off work done by others as their own to persuade clients to hand over large amounts of money.
Gogo would go to the victims' homes and pass himself off as a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects while claiming he had a masters degree in the subject.
Although he had studied architecture, neither of his claims were true.
The fraud was uncovered after a spate of complaints about the company in late 2017 and a joint investigation was launched by Trading Standards and the Metropolitan Police.
'Bunch of thieves'
A number of victim impact statements were read to the court.
Marie Miranda said that her marriage suffered and she suffered stress and a lack of sleep.
She said: "They are a bunch of thieves."
Another said he had suffered a relapse of his multiple sclerosis after losing £30,000.
A fourth defendant, Louise Shiangkwang, pleaded guilty to fraud after allowing her kitchen in Lancing, West Sussex, to be used as a false show home for the company, when in fact her building work had been carried out by a neighbour.
She will be sentenced on 14 February.
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