Elderly Victims Compensated After Cowboy Builders Ordered To Pay Back £1.3m

02/03/2012

A family of fraudulent builders who conned elderly victims out of thousands of pounds of their savings have now had over £1.3 million confiscated from them.

The District Judge at Manchester City Magistrates Court ordered the confiscation of £370,000 in cash which had been seized from two members of the Cleveleys-based Tomney family by Greater Manchester Police.  At an earlier Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing at Preston Crown Court last November a judge ordered them to pay back a total of £955,264.47 or face further time in jail.

Frank Tomney Snr and his sons Frank Tomney Jnr, and Thomas Tomney were jailed last year for a total of 15 years at Preston Crown Court for fraud after they targeted homes across Lancashire, Manchester and Hertfordshire and offered to carry out work on the properties of victims. They then charged extortionate amounts of money and either carried out shoddy work or caused damage to the victims' properties and then carried out poor repairs for an exorbitant charge.  In one case a pensioner was made to hand over £31,000 for work the Tomneys claimed that they had done at her Blackpool home. In another, the group poured milk onto a Stockport victim's driveway, claiming it was sealant, and forced him to pay £800.

Through cooperation between the Lancashire and Greater Manchester Police and the CPS North West Complex Casework Unit the Crown Court at Preston varied the original Restraint Order.  This had the legal effect of releasing the cash that had been seized from the grip of the Restraint Order and enabled all the civil case victims who had reported the conmen to Trading Standards to be reimbursed via the cash forfeiture proceedings at Manchester City Magistrates Court.  The District Judge ordered a total of £152,094 to be paid back to the victims. 

It is believed this is the first time POCA legislation has been used in such a way to reimburse not only the victims in the criminal case, but also those identified victims who were not part of the criminal case.

John Dilworth, Head of CPS North West Area Complex Casework Unit said: "As well as bringing the Tomneys to justice for their wicked exploitation of the victims in this case the CPS in the North West has worked closely with the Lancashire and Greater Manchester Police forces to strip them of their assets and compensate all of their victims.

"This was not just a case of shoddy workmanship or opportunistic crimes, this was systematic fraud over a considerable period of time and across a wide area.   Today's outcome is the final piece in the jigsaw and I am extremely pleased that all of the victims will now get their money back.

Detective Chief Insp Tim Leeson, Lancashire Constabulary, said: "The Tomneys deliberately hoarded away the money that they had made by conning their elderly and vulnerable victims so that they would avoid scrutiny from the authorities- particularly the tax man.

"Their shoddy and often dangerous building work has left many people out of pocket, and in some cases has decimated pensioners' life savings, so it is extremely gratifying that money conned from victims is being used to compensate those same victims. Hopefully this will allow the victims to put this terrible experience behind them and move on."

Detective Inspector Glen Jones, from Greater Manchester Police's financial investigation unit, said: "Some of the stories we were told by these victims about the standard of work undertaken by the Tomneys were shocking. But equally, we were also moved by the sheer tenacity of some of those victims, who despite their age, were not simply not prepared to let them get away with it, and let the Tomneys pocket their hard-earned cash.

"This has been a long and complicated process, but I am absolutely delighted that we have finally secured justice for those victims and they will be repaid, in full. Today is a victory for them."

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