Rogue traders who targeted elderly sentenced

A couple who took tens of thousands of pounds from elderly customers while carrying out substandard building work have been convicted of multiple rogue trading offences.

Martin Gray and Diane Barrow (also known as Dee Gilbert), both 57, traded as Cotters Building Services in Hullavington, Wiltshire. The pair were sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court after a Trading Standards investigation.

Wiltshire Council said four of the six victims were elderly and paid large sums for work that was poorly done, incomplete or never started.

Gray was given a 41-week suspended sentence and Barrow was handed an eight-week suspended sentence. Both were ordered to complete 30 rehabilitation days and pay £600 in fines.

Councillor Paul Sample, from Wiltshire Council, said: "This case highlights the devastating impact rogue traders can have on vulnerable residents.

"These two individuals exploited trust and left a trail of financial and emotional harm behind them."

The offences were committed in 2023 in Malmesbury, Chippenham and Royal Wootton Bassett, in Wiltshire, and Portishead, North Somerset.

Between January and May of that year the couple received £10,887 from a 75-year-old homeowner in Malmesbury to carry out work at a property.

The work was left incomplete with a local builder telling Trading Standards it was of "the worst standard" he had seen in 35 years in the industry.

In September 2023, a 63-year-old Chippenham resident paid a total of £20,500 for conservatory repairs which were never properly carried out.

A chartered surveyor, commissioned by Trading Standards, found the conservatory roof fitted by Gray was unsupported, leaking and at risk of "catastrophic collapse".

Electrical work had been left incomplete and unsafe and walls had been built without foundations.

Another victim, their 85-year-old neighbour, paid the pair £2,000 for a new conservatory roof but no work ever took place and no materials were supplied.

All of the victims attempted to resolve matters with the couple but their contact was ignored.

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