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In September 2019, Steven Murphy, who had just been released from prison, began to target Halesowen and Sedgley.
Residents reported their concerns to police. Dudley CommitteeTrading Standards and informed them that there was a rogue roofer operating in the area.
Trading Standards investigated five separate cases and found Murphy used the same tactics on each of the elderly or vulnerable victims.
He personally called each victim’s home and offered to clean their gutters for the low price of £40.
He then, in some cases, almost immediately identified additional roofing work that needed to be carried out and persuaded them to spend thousands of pounds on extensive but unnecessary repairs and roofing work.
In an interview with Trading Standards, Murphy confirmed he had been working in the construction and roofing industry for 30 years but denied all the allegations against him.
Trading Standards took the matter to court, but there were some delays in the legal process due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In January this year Murphy, of Buryfield Road, Solihal, pleaded guilty to one offence under the Fraud Act 2006 at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
In court, prosecutors argued that the victims had lost at least £16,100 as a result of the fraudulent trading offences and that attempts were made to defraud a further £5,500.
On July 30, the rogue trader was sentenced to three years in prison.
James Clinton, Dudley Council’s cabinet member for public health, said: “Murphy’s offending was stopped thanks to the hard work of our trading standards officers and he is now serving a prison sentence.
“We hope this serves as a wake-up call to others and that we will investigate and do everything we can to protect residents, including the most vulnerable and elderly.”
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