A date has been set to sentence two men from Brighton and two others over an £800,000 home improvement scam.
Brian Tutton, 62, formerly of Leahurst Court Road, Brighton, was remanded in custody after being found guilty of fraud by a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
Fellow fraudster Scott Baker, 49, also from Brighton, was also convicted at the end of the seven-week trial presided over by Judge Noel Casey.
David Gogo, 29, of Barringer Square, Tooting, London, was found guilty of fraud, having pretended to be a qualified architect.
A fourth member of the gang, Louise Shiangwang, also known as Louise Hammond, 49, of Grinstead Lane, Lancing, pleaded guilty to fraud after lying about her home extension.
All four are due to be sentenced on Friday 4 February.
The jury was told that Tutton had set up a company called set up Contemporary Home Improvements Limited and fraudulently took deposits from dozens of people across the south of England.
No building work was carried out nor was it ever intended to be undertaken, Alistair Richardson, prosecuting, told the court.
He said that the scam convinced homeowners that Contemporary Home Improvements was a legitimate business through a variety of lies and deceptions.
These included using Shiangwang’s kitchen extension – which was built by her neighbour – and using it as a false show home to lure prospective victims to make deposit payments.
The deposit payments ran to thousands of pounds – and in several cases, tens of thousands of pounds.
Those involved in the fraud posted fake reviews on their company website and used false photographs of work which they claimed had been carried out by the company.
Gogo visited victims’ homes and pretended to be a qualified architect, carrying a business card bearing the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) affix.
But Contemporary Home Improvements (CHI), which was registered at an address in Camden, soon attracted a spate of complaints in late 2017.
Camden Council trading standards officers joined forces with investigators from National Trading Standards and the Metropolitan Police Fraud Investigation Team to carry out a joint investigation.
Camden Council said: “The joint investigation meant that complaints and intelligence from different organisations could be combined into one single, larger investigation, avoiding duplication and pooling expertise.”
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One witness, Angie Brigden, told the court that she and her husband Gary Vinall, had a single-storey rear extension.
Baker was the “salesman” who called at their home – and Mrs Brigden said: “Basically, we were offered two quotes – one being a regular price which came in roughly the same price as others we had received – and the other was for a ‘case study’ quote.
“This was at reduced rate, if we agreed to have three other potential clients round to view our finished works.
“We decided to accept this offer, not just because it was cheaper, but because I thought if they wanted to show off their works, they would complete to a high standard.
“We were invited to view works that CHI had previously done in Lancing, near Brighton. The owner, Louise Shiangwang, claimed she was old friends with Brian and they had all worked together at Anglian Windows. She said that CHI had built her extension.
“We already had architect plans drawn up but CHI wanted us to use an architect of theirs as they wanted to have a ‘one-stop shop’ and keep everything under one umbrella.
“Their architect was David Gogo. We refused to pay what CHI were asking for this and a lower price was agreed.
“We had problems with the architect from the start. He wasn’t even able to measure a wall correctly. We had to keep going back to him and have him come out to our home several times because of errors.”
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Mrs Brigden said: “We had a start date in September 2017 and as time went on we felt these were delaying tactics.
“In September 2017, Brian said our project would be delayed as the architect needed to get structural engineer to draw up plans.
“On 25 September 2017, I tried to call the office of CHI for an update, only to find one number was no longer in service and the other was diverted to a voicemail but the box was full.
“There was no answer from either Brian or Scott’s mobile. I then telephoned David Gogo, who said he hadn’t been able to get hold of anyone either and advised that we should call our bank and report it as fraud.
“I was so shocked that this had happened considering all the research we had done to avoid becoming a scam statistic.
“Through social media I made contact with another victim who had shared a Facebook post.
“A small number of us grouped together some of these – not us – located Brian staying at his parents’ house in Wales.
“They drove there and confronted him. He claimed he had had to close the company due to ill health and that there was money left in the account and it was in the hands of the liquidator.”
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The victims have raised concerns about the way that the company was liquidated although some have managed to recover money from their bank or credit provider.
National Trading Standards director Wendy Martin said: “Contemporary Home Improvements Limited was built on dishonesty and deceit.
“Large sums of money were paid by victims for building work that the company and its director had no intention of carrying out.
“We welcome the verdicts and hope these results can provide some semblance of comfort for the victims.
“The sudden increase in complaints and the complexity of the investigation meant that National Trading Standards decided to support the investigation by the local team.
“I would like to thank all involved across the multiple enforcement agencies for all their efforts to bring these criminals to justice.”
Among the other victims whose evidence helped to bring the fraudsters to justice were Diana and Jan Wright and Miriam and Dave Ingram.
The court was told that the fraudsters might be linked to other companies carrying out similar scams and some of the victims hope that their success will encourage others to come forward.
