A “despicable” rogue builder who intimidated pensioners into handing over hundreds of thousands of pounds for shoddy work has been jailed for eight years.
Hughie Smith, helped by his son John, convinced one Hove man to pay almost £200,000 in admin fees to process a refund for minor building work which was originally quoted to cost £2,100.
The 49-year-old from Chertsey also conned pensioners in Sussex and Surrey using similar tactics – and then roped in his sons John and Michael to help launder the proceeds.
He then spent the stash on Rolex watches and high value cars.
Sentencing at Hove Crown Court on Friday, His Honour David Rennie said: “There are two stages in every person’s life when they are obviously vulnerable.
“Children and young people are necessarily fragile. History repeats itself as we move into old age and people are once again vulnerable.
“They become anxious about health and safety, and about financial security. Their pensions and savings become unbelievably important to them and the loss of that financial security is often catastrophic.
“We have heard they are devastated by what you chose to do in your different ways.
“People who prey on the elderly are behaving in an absolutely despicable manner – just to get things like watches and cars. It’s disgusting.”
The court heard that Hughie Smith had only been given a 12-month suspended sentence a month before he began to scam Bernard Crawley, 74, in the summer of 2015.
He knocked on the door of the bungalow with his wife Vera in Knaphill, Surrey, and offered to repair their small wall.
He initially asked for £2,100, but over the next 18 months, they paid him £180,000, completely wiping out their life savings.
Prosecuting, Joseph Carr said: “They then received a call saying they would refund £36,000 but needed a payment of £800 to process the payment.
“This prompted them to call the police.”
A builder later said the work that had been completed was of poor quality and only worth about £20,000.
In 2017, Anthony Craggs, 76, of Pembroke Avenue, Hove, had a knock on the door from Hughie Smith. He needed minor repairs done to his wall.
Smith quoted him £2,100, but once the work was done, there was a discrepancy which meant he was owed a refund.
Mr Carr said that over the next few months, he received a string of calls from people claiming to be from Smith’s companies, Tradeline and Avalon.
He said: “They gave the reasons why Mr Cragg needed to pay more money to process the refund. They said they needed to balance the books, they needed to pay further VAT, they needed secure vehicles to transport the refund to them, various issues with technology and accountants blocking it.
“They also said the person delivering the refund had been involved in a car crash, or had been mugged or the car was being followed so it had to turn back.
“In total, Mr Cragg paid £197,936 to Hughie Smith’s businesses. At no stage did he receive a refund.”
The money was paid into bank accounts belonging to Hughie and Michael Smith, and the money was quickly taken out in cash.
John Smith met the defendants in the bank, and deposited thousands in his bank accounts.
HMRC confirmed no tax was paid on any of this money,
In the following months, Hughie Smith bought a £4,000 Rolex watch and a £11,296 BMW.
He also attempted to buy a £44,000 Mercedes, but the dealership stopped the transaction because it was flagged as potential money laundering.
In 2020, Kathleen Francis, 80, paid him £5,500 in cash and cheques for work to her driveway later valued at £850.
Deborah Gibson in East Grinstead was approached by Hughie Smith just after her sister and mother died, neither of whom she had been able to visit because of lockdown restrictions.
She said Smith knew she was having bereavement counselling, and took advantage of this, persuading her to pay more than £3,100 for work worth much less.
In a victim impact statement read out in court, she said: “He was nice and civil towards me until he wasn’t.
“He turned when I refused to give him more money.
“Hughie Smith took what was left of me. I feel alarmed and embarrassed. I have lost trust in myself and others.”
Christopher Brading, 88, was living alone and suffering from memory loss in Weybridge following a fall when Hughie Smith knocked on his door in 2021.
He ended up paying £24,000 for incomplete and shoddy building work.
The same year, Hughie Smith also targeted Joan and Guy Duberley from Chichester, while Guy was suffering from terminal cancer.
They paid him £16,700 for work on their driveway which was never completed, and he then offered to refund them – but only if they paid another £6,000.
In a victim impact statement read out in court, Ms Duberley said: “It was clear that they were just trying to get as much money from us as possible.
“This used up our pension fund. We were trying to get the house in order because Guy was terminally ill before he passed away.
“This happening broke our hearts. It was sad that we had to deal with this in the months before his passing.”
Mitigating for Hughie and John Smith, Ashley Hendron asked for their guilty pleas and time already served on remand to be taken into account, adding they had completed restorative justice courses while inside.
Speaking for Michael Smith, Adam Butler said that although he had led a life of crime as a young man, he was now married to a woman outside of the travelling community, which had led to him being estranged by most of his family.
He said his life was now devoted to caring for his wife and their four children, and that he had had no idea where the £11,000 his father and brother had given him had come from.
Hughie Smith had been given a 12-month suspended sentence for almost exactly the same kind of offences at Canterbury Court in June 2015.
On Friday, this sentence was activated, albeit reduced to eight months. He was also given a string of other sentences for the various fraud and money laundering offences which added up to a consecutive eight years in prison.
Judge Rennie told him: “As the leading figure in all of this fraud I have to deal with today and as the driving force behind the commission of all this human misery only a long prison sentence can be justified.”
John Smith 25, of Chertsey, Surrey, was given a 14 month prison sentence.
Michael Smith, 30, of Addlestone, Surrey, was given a 14 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with a requirement to complete ten rehabilitation activity days and 180 hours of unpaid work.
Where are his lips?