Hughie Smith, 49, from Fernlands Close, Chertsey is facing the next 8 years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to a number of fraud offences at Hove Crown Court on Friday, 3 March.

This sentencing comes as a result of joint working between Surrey and Sussex police forces as well as Trading Standards.

Smith approached an elderly couple in Knaphill in 2015 offering to fix a brick wall in their front garden. This led to him intimidating them to having more work done around their property that they did not need charging them obscene amounts of money for poor quality work.

The money taken from this one couple built up to £180,000 with Smith continuing to scam his victims with follow up calls which led to their son becoming suspicious and calling the police. Further investigation revealed this to be part of a large scale ‘rogue trader’ style fraud operating across Surrey and Sussex with Smith at its head.

Officer in charge, Detective Constable Barnard, said: “This is a great result following a very thorough investigation carried out in partnership with Sussex Police and Trading Standards. The lengthy prison sentence demonstrates that this sort of criminal behaviour will not be tolerated and should act as a deterrent to others who believe they can con vulnerable people out of huge sums of money and get away with it.”