Court lowers fine for con artist builder

6:00am Thursday 22nd May 2008

A CONMAN who was part of a cowboy gang which fleeced elderly Hampshire residents for thousands of pounds has won a reduction in the sum he must repay.

Anthony Ward, 36, from Kanes Hill Caravan Park in Thornhill, Southampton, was one of five people found guilty last year of tricking vulnerable homeowners out of cash for work they never did.

A confiscation order imposed on Ward to force him to repay the profits he made from the cons has now been reduced from £20,000 to £16,546.

Judge Roger Hetherington, sitting at Portsmouth Crown Court, granted the reduction after he heard how a car belonging to Ward that must be sold was originally over-valued.

Prosecutor Francis Chamberlain said: "Originally the confiscation order was made to the sum of £20,000. There appears to have been an over-valuation of a car. We are now content with the figure of £1,350 for the car."

The gang included leader and Ward's brother John Ward, their sister Anne Marie Ward and friends Jonathan Currie, from Slough, and Floyd Gradidge, of Hinkler Road, Thornhill.

A police raid on the Ward's caravans at Kanes Hill in May 2006 uncovered more than £28,000 in cash and £70,000 worth of Rolex watches.

The group claimed to have carried out extensive repair work on their victims' homes, charging them thousands of pounds, when they had in fact done little more than daub red paint on roofs and walls.

They posed as builders to target elderly and mentally vulnerable residents across Southampton, Romsey, Fareham and Portsmouth over a two-year period.

Homeowners were intimidated into accompanying them to banks to withdraw savings. Some were even forced to take out loans to pay for the overpriced work and the gang pocketed nearly a quarter of a million pounds.

They were jailed for a total of 18 years last March.