A COWBOY roofer has been found guilty of trying to rip off an elderly Dudley couple for almost £10,000.

Lyndon Paul Pardoe, trading as Multicare Roofing and Building Services, quoted spiralling costs to the pensioners and replaced their roof with a substandard version.

The 51-year-old, from Hazledene Road in Sheldon, Birmingham, was found guilty of three counts of fraud and a further two offences under the Consumer Protection and Unfair Trading Regulations at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

The court heard how Pardoe cold-called the couple, aged 81 and 82, in 2013 claiming the roof on their semi-detached Dudley home needed repairing at a cost of £1,540, to which they agreed.

He returned to their home in 2014 claiming the whole roof now needed replacing and quoted £3,800, which later rocketed to £9,800.

Pardoe started the work inside the statutory seven day cooling off period without giving any paperwork or cancellation rights to the couple.

The couple’s daughter raised the alarm with Dudley Council’s trading standards who immediately stopped the work.

However by that time Pardoe had removed most of the old roof and begun putting in the new one.

A Chartered Building Surveyor inspected the roof and found the work was so bad it had to be scrapped altogether.

The court has adjourned the case for sentencing on March 21.

Councillor Rachel Harris, cabinet member responsible for trading standards, said: “I am pleased that our trading standards were able to step in and get justice for this elderly couple. The court has made a clear ruling that actions like this are not acceptable.

“We work hard to ensure we help protect people from cowboy builders wherever we can, and will not hesitate to prosecute those people who think it is acceptable to charge extortionate amounts of money for shoddy workmanship that does not need doing in the first place.”