Terminally ill man was victim of solar panel scammers

A woman says she feels “stupid” for being conned by the renewable energy firm involved in a £1.3m fraud.

Three people were sentenced on Friday at Nottingham Crown Court for their parts in a series of sophisticated scams which targeted hundreds of victims across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.

Janet Roberts and her late husband Neil had a solar panel installed on their Measham home for £9,450 by Sunpower Renewables, despite other reputable firms saying their roof could not support one.

The firm then used the identity of Neil, who has since died from a condition that affected his organs, to take out a fraudulent loan that the couple were told was a government grant towards a heat pump they had said they did not want.

The couple only realised the truth when the loan company called them asking to arrange their first repayment.

Janet, 70, said: “My late husband had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, we were a bit down.

“We had been talking about solar panels. A company came out to look at the roof and they said forget it, we had an old house and it was unsuitable.

“Then we got this cold call from Sunpower, who said their panels were lighter.

“I know it's easy to say now but I immediately disliked him. Neil was vulnerable and a little bit gullible, he was taking an interest in his illness and talking about football and stuff. He was really schmoozing.”

The couple had to extend their mortgage to afford the panel, which they did on a false promise that the panel would pay for itself generating power for the national grid.

The firm then contacted them again offering a heat pump system for £13,500, partly paid for with a non-existent government grant, which they refused.

But Sunpower had a loan paid into the Roberts’ account and took the money from them.

Janet said: “A month or two later, we had a phone call asking how we propose to pay back the loan we had taken out.

“I felt absolute panic. It was dreadful.

“I just feel stupid actually, really, really stupid for being taken in by this smarmy salesman. I think he just caught us at a low ebb in our lives, which is no excuse.

“To anyone in our situation, I’d say make sure you get several quotes, don’t just take the first quote, and check out the company a bit. We did none of that.”

As well as a renewable energy firm, a second firm was set up, Proshield, to mis-sell home security systems to the same database of vulnerable homeowners in the East Midlands.

One couple who bought a system under false pretences for their Kegworth house was Nick and Rose O’Ballance.

But the couple eventually uninstalled it themselves after a string of issues, pulling it off the wall and placing it in a cardboard box in their garage.

They also agreed to an en-suite bathroom installation - which was never carried out.

Nick, 69, told the BBC: “They found us canvassing. They had a company called Proshield, and said we were eligible at reduced cost because he was in the area.

“It would also be a reduced cost as they planned to use our house as advertising for commercial purposes.

“They said it was top-of-the-range and usually cost a fortune, it was the kind of system that footballers and superstars have in their homes, with an instant response.

“They had fancy printed brochures and were very convincing.

He continued: “The price was £3,495, which includes five years maintenance and monitoring. We filled out the paperwork.

“All that happened is that they came to install the alarm, which probably took about two hours.

“All he did was fix boxes to on the wall and plug a filter into the telephone, like you do for an internet router. There was no hard wiring, instead they would have to come every six months to change the batteries.

“When it did go off it made a lot of noise inside but outside it you would just think ‘what’s going on in there’.

“When I took it down it took less than five minutes, it’s now just in a box in the back of the garage.”

Rose O’Ballance said: “From the start it seemed to be really hard to get hold of them, they weren’t returning our calls. We thought there’s something not right about this.

“I went to the offices and spoke to the receptionist and she more-or-less said they don’t work there, they don’t pick up the phone and they only come in for the mail.

“She said a lot of people had been ringing.

“I was absolutely beside myself. I was really panicking. This was our money, that we had saved, for us to enjoy. We hadn’t gone on holiday so we could have the system.

“All we had to show for it was an alarm we couldn’t use.

“They even wanted extra money for maintaining the alarm when the bloody thing kept going off in the middle of the night. People in the street were going mental.

“I was absolutely furious. You think you are not stupid, that you’re quite intelligent and not yet in your dotage.

“But it actually looks so good, they show you the brochures, everything is so well done.

“Until you realise you've been conned, you don't think that will ever happen to you.”

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