Two builders have been jailed after conning an elderly couple out of their life savings.
51-year-old Dave McEvoy, from Splott, Cardiff, and 21-year-old Joseph Ellis, from Basildon, Essex, targeted an address in Ystalyfera, Neath Port Talbot before agreeing to carry out “roof cleaning” for an 83-year-old victim.
After initially charging the man £1,000, the pair attended on a number of occasions to carry out the ‘work’, but on every occasion they asked the victim for more money as they kept finding ‘faults’ with the roof. They would eventually remove half of the roof and fail to replace it.
In total, the pair swindled some £33,200 from the man in July 2024 alone. They also tried to convince the elderly couple to remortgage in order to release equity.
A review of the couple’s bungalow showed that the work should have only cost in the region of £700-800.
Both men pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and have been sentenced to two years and three months in prison.
Detective Constable Rachel Thomas said:
“Dave McEvoy and Joseph Ellis are the sort of criminals for whom there is no low to which they will not stoop.
“To target an elderly and vulnerable couple not just once, but time and time again until they had been fully relieved of their life savings, shows that these two men have a complete lack of honour and respect.
“As long as they were making more money, they didn’t care one bit about the damage they were doing to the victims’ lives.”
