Two Brighton fraudsters have been jailed for running an £830,000 home improvement scam which cost some victims their life savings.
Brian Tutton and Scott Baker were sentenced by Judge Noel Casey at Snaresbrook Crown Court this afternoon (Friday 4 February).
Brian Tutton, 62, formerly of Leahurst Court Road, Brighton, and Westmoreland Shortbridge Lodge, Mill Hill, Piltdown, Uckfield, was jailed for seven years. He was banned from being a company director for 10 years.
Scott Baker, who turned 50 yesterday, of Brighton, was jailed for four years. Baker, formerly of Braintree Road, Cosham, Portsmouth, and Two Mile Hill Road, Bristol, was banned from being a company director for five years.
The scam was supported by David Gogo, 30, of Barringer Square, Tooting, London, who passed himself off as an architect. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison, suspended for two years.
A fourth defendant, Louise Shiangwang, also known as Louise Hammond, 49, of Grinstead Lane, Lancing, will be sentenced on Monday 14 February, having tested positive for covid-19.
During a seven-week trial at Snaresbrook, the jury were told that Tutton had set up a company called set up Contemporary Home Improvements Limited (CHI).
The former Anglian Windows employee worked with salesman Scott Baker 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.
But Contemporary Home Improvements, 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 national trading standards investigators and the Metropolitan Police Fraud Investigation Team to carry out a joint investigation.
How did the scam work?
