Cold-calling ban and jail for fraudster

Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday Julian Hutchinson told an 82-year-old woman he was working for a gas company and said they wanted all homes to be fitted with a carbon monoxide detector.

He offered to fit one for her and she was under the impression it was free but after installing one he handed her a receipt and asked for 20. She felt obliged to give him it to get him out of the house.

Alisha Kaye, prosecuting, said some days later Hutchinson called at the homes of two other women, one aged 84 and the other 74, indicating he was from a loft insulation company.

When the first was not interested in insulation he offered to fit her a carbon monoxide detector next to her cooker but she pointed out it was electric not gas. The next woman already had a detector fitted.

Hutchinson, 61, of High Street, Yeadon, Leeds admitted three charges of fraud and asked for six other offences in Bradford, Otley and Leeds to be taken into consideration.

He was jailed for 12 months for those offences with a further six months consecutive from a previously suspended sentence for similar deception offences.

Sentencing him, Judge Rachel Hudson said most of the offences concerned elderly vulnerable women in their homes after he had gained their trust.

She imposed an Asbo for five years banning him from marketing or selling items to people not known to him in their homes.