Rogue trader jailed after charging £42,000 for fake grass

A rogue trader who tried to charge a 90-year-old man £42,000 to lay a small patch of artificial turf has been jailed.

Michael Gorman, 47, carried out work at the victim’s home in Caversham, Reading, and then drastically inflated proposed charges.

The pensioner, who died in late 2023, initially hired him to remove some trees in November 2021 but Gorman returned to grossly overcharge him for other work.

Gorman was jailed for 32 months at Reading Crown Court on Friday following a Reading Borough Council investigation.

It found Gorman, of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, initially told the pensioner, who lived alone, that it would cost £2,300 to fit the nine square metre patch of astroturf.

After the work Gorman charged his victim £42,000 but the cheque gave to him bounced because the man had insufficient funds in his account.

Gorman then pressured him into writing another for £38,000, in part for installing the artificial lawn.

After this second large cheque, Lloyds Bank staff in Reading were suspicious and called police, who investigated what had happened with the council’s trading standards team.

They found that between late 2021 and April 2022, Gorman installed a new fence for £1,400 and removed and installed paving for £12,500 at the man's home.

The authority said that work should have cost just over £4,000.

Gorman admitted three counts of fraud at a hearing in January.

Rob Abell, Reading Borough Council’s consumer protection group manager, said a “meticulous investigation spanning many months” had brought Gorman to justice.

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