By staff reporter

Last updated 15:55, Wednesday, 07 May 2008

A ROGUE roofer who played a major part in “conning” a Whitehaven widow out of £1,700 has escaped going to jail.

victim: Jean McAlone

But George Woodhouse, 26, was told by Whitehaven Magistrates: “You are the lowest of the low.”

Woodhouse was re-appearing for sentence after being convicted of defrauding 72-year-old Jean McAlone, of High Road, Kells.

Woodhouse and his roofing partner Isaac Watson, both from Carlisle, tricked Mrs McAlone into parting with the £1,700 for a bogus roofing job at her home.

Woodhouse was told by presiding magistrate Peter Donnelly that apart from being the lowest of the low he was also despicable and had narrowly escaped going to prison.

Instead, he was ordered to do 250 hours community service and pay £2,500 court costs.

Watson had previously served a jail sentence for similar roofing fraud offences in the Carlisle area and the Crown Court had taken the Whitehaven offence into consideration.

This arose when Watson and Woodhouse called on Jean McAlone and tricked her into thinking that the roof of her Kells home needed re-slating and re-felting.

They carried out the work but it was worth only £300.

After an on-the-spot estimate, Mrs McAlone paid out a total of £1,700, saying: “I trusted them to do the job.”

Magistrates heard that the pair were trading as Acorn Roofing but Trading Standards said this was run as a front to con people.

The court was also told: “People were conned out of money and it was a fraudulent use of a business.”

Mrs McAlone had told the court: “I trusted them and they gave me a 10-year-guarantee.”

When Woodhouse was convicted at the first hearing, his solicitor Neil Pilling claimed that Acorn Roofing was run by Watson and he was really the villain of the piece.

But Trading Standards insisted: “He was just as much involved as Watson in the fraud. He knew what was going on.”

In convicting him at the earlier hearing, presiding magistrate Peter Donnelly said: “We believe you were fully involved with Watson in the business and that you did profit from this enterprise.”

Jean McAlone, who was in court to hear the sentence, told The Whitehaven News: “I think Mr Woodhouse did deserve to go to prison for what he did.”

At the Crown Court , Isaac Watson was ordered to pay her compensation, but so far in 12 months she has still received only £18.46 in two separate payments.