Rogue traders: 'I don't know how conmen can do it'

Within hours of Geoffrey Whitaker agreeing to have his drive resurfaced by a door-to-door salesman, the tarmac lorry turned up.

The 81-year-old from Hay-on-Wye was not particularly interested in having work done but the salesman was "quite persistent".

The sales pitch was they had surplus tarmac left over from relaying roads and drives in his area of Powys - and Mr Whitaker agreed for them to do it for a deal of £2000.

He and his wife Kathleen weren't happy with the job and called Powys trading standards, who discovered the boss Allan Coutts had done the same to hundreds of elderly people across the UK.

He was jailed for five-and-a-half years in August 2019 for defrauding people of between £600 and £7,000 for shoddy driveways.

"I don't know how people can do it," said Mr Whitaker.