A heartless tradesman defrauded a terminally ill cancer sufferer and his wife out of over £10,000 for work which was never completed.
Andrew Iveson was employed by the couple to carry out renovation work in the garden of their Spennymoor home in September 2020. But despite the 33-year-old taking thousands off the couple for materials, he only turned up a handful of times to carry out work, eventually leaving their garden looking like a "builder's yard."
Even after finding out one of his victims was suffering from terminal brain cancer, Iveson still failed to show up, leading the couple to contact the police after paying him a total of £10,250.
On Wednesday, Iveson, of Elderberry Close, Newton Aycliffe, appeared at Durham Crown Court to be sentenced for two counts of fraud and one count of money laundering. He pleaded guilty to the charges at a previous hearing and was put behind bars.
Anthony Pettingell, prosecuting on behalf of Durham County Council, said the married couple employed Iveson, who was trading under the name of AWP Home Improvements, in 2020 so that renovation work could be done to their patio and garden. Mr Pettingell said the husband - a former fire officer - was suffering from terminal brain cancer at the time and sadly passed away during the subsequent investigation.
Mr Pettingell said the man's wife contacted Iveson who later attended their home in September 2020 and quoted £7,650 to carry out work on the garden and patio. He said: "The defendant contacted her by text and he asked about a deposit. She told him they were nervous as he had no online reviews. He said this was because he had just started his business."
Despite feeling "uncomfortable", the couple transferred £3,000 for materials, and Lee turned up on a handful of occasions before he began providing excuses as to why he couldn't attend. He later proposed more expensive work could be done at their home and urged them to get it all done at once. The couple agreed and sent over more money, but Iveson still failed to show up regularly, instead leaving a huge mound of soil in their garden.
The woman soon became frustrated at Iveson's no-shows and she told him that her husband had terminal cancer and that they wanted the garden to be completed so he could enjoy it before becoming too ill. Despite promising to finish the job, he still never showed and stopped replying to text messages and calls. Eventually, the woman resorted to begging Iveson to finish the garden but she received "no response".
Mr Pettingell said the garden was left "completely unfinished", causing the couple to rely on volunteers and friends to help clean it up. A surveyor looked at the work and estimated that around £7,000 of work had actually been done, but pointed out "poor work", leaving the couple £3,180 out of pocket. He added: "The work was said to be substantially incomplete and £10,250 was paid to the defendant out of the total quoted price."
In a victim statement, the woman, who has two young children, said Iveson's actions have had a "significant impact" on her and said not a day goes by that she doesn't think about what Iveson did at a time when her late husband was battling cancer. She said she could "never forgive" him.
Robin Turton, defending, asked for full credit for his guilty pleas and said Iveson has shown "genuine remorse". He said: "He is racked with guilt and shame. There is not a day where he has not thought about what he's done. He was based in Scotland and moved back to the North East for the birth of his first child."
Mr Turton said Iveson was newly self employed at the time and became "overcommitted", which led him to under-quote on jobs and ultimately become short of money. He said things then "spiralled out of control" and he resorted to selling his work van. He added: "He buried his head in the sand and didn't know how to deal with it. He resorted to just pretending the problem wasn't there. This is not a case where he set out to commit a fraud."
Sentencing Iveson, Judge James Adkin, the Recorder of Durham, said he left the couple's garden "looking like a builder's yard" and called it "particularly cruel offending" and "callous". He added: "This was a man near the end of his life and his wife was only doing her very best for him to make his life more comfortable." Iveson was jailed for 12 months.
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