Another dodgy County Durham fish-seller has been put behind bars for scamming elderly customers out of thousands.
Darren Shanks ripped-off vulnerable customers by mis-selling over-priced fish using aggressive, unfair and dishonest business practices, making £100,000 in the process. The 53-year-old left victims feeling they had no choice but to pay for the fish and were left feeling cheated and ashamed. Investigators found that, like other criminal fish sellers operating in the area, Shanks sourced fish cheaply and sold it at high prices.
On Monday, Shanks, of Elm Crescent, Kimblesworth, Chester-Le-Street, County Durham, appeared at Teesside Magistrates' Court for defrauding customers through his company, D T Shanks Fresh Fish and was jailed for two years and four months. He carried out the offences between June 2016 and February 2021, and had previously pleaded guilty to the offences under the Fraud Act. Shanks was also handed an indefinite Criminal Behaviour Order.
