Police yesterday condemned a “selfish” conman who preyed on vulnerable and elderly homeowners in the Highlands and Moray.
Frank Docherty, 22, fraudulently obtained £9,132 from five people, including three pensioners, which was repaid by his father after police caught up with him.
Docherty, of Montrose, appeared for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court this week after admitting five charges of fraud and another of using aggressive language and behaviour to demand payment.
Yesterday Detective Inspector Richard Baird said: “It was evident throughout our investigations that Docherty targeted vulnerable and retired homeowners in the Easter Ross and Strathspey areas.
“Local residents should have been spending their savings enjoying their retirement but instead they were panicked by Docherty into spending money on unnecessary alterations and repairs.
“The evidence found by officers meant he had no alternative but to admit his guilt and hopefully today’s custodial sentence will help provide some closure to the members of our local communities he sadly manipulated with his selfish actions”.
Sheriff David Sutherland had deferred sentence for a background report and in court on Tuesday he said: “No sentence other than a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
And after hearing that Docherty’s father had repaid the money, the Sheriff added: “If it had not been repaid, the sentence would have been considerably more.”
The Sheriff was told that Docherty had been in Strathspey and Badenoch and Moray during April 2015.
He had a vehicle and paperwork declaring he represented Tarstone Construction and charged up to 10 times what would have been the cost of a proper job.
His victims lived in Laggan, Kingussie, Kincraig, Newtonmore and Forres.
In one case, Fiscal depute Fraser Matheson said that 84-year-old John Milne, of Kincraig, had to pay £2,550 for driveway work and moss removal from his roof – five times the correct price for acceptable work.
And in another, 85-year-old Sheila Fraser, of Golf Course Road, Newtonmore, was forced to pay Docherty £1,400 for roof moss removal – 10 times what it should have been – plus an additional £600 to repair her roof after he had finished.
