A COWBOY builder has been jailed for almost nine years after taking at least £350,000 in a repairs scam.

Patrick Young conned a string of homeowners out of large sums of money during a lucrative four-year fraud beginning in September 2009.

His victims included a 79-year-old man who paid out £172,000 for work valued at a fraction of that. 

An 84-year-old woman also handed over £132,000. Young was finally caught in late 2013 after a large police investigation.

The 56-year-old appeared at the High Court in Glasgow last month where he pled guilty to 13 charges, including fraud and extortion.

At the High Court in Paisley yesterday, he was jailed for eight years and nine months.

Judge Lord Matthews said Young had used his “overbearing personality” and in one case “express threats” to amass a total of £535,917. Deducting the value of the work done, it was said that the fraud was worth at least £350,000. 

The judge told him: “Many of your victims were elderly and, or, vulnerable and ... there was in some cases a breach of the trust which they had reposed in you over some time.”

Young was told it was “somewhat alarming” that according to his social work report he showed “no real insight” into the nature of his crimes and the judge said he could not detect any “real expression of remorse”.

Lord Matthews said Young’s crimes resulted in “significant financial loss” to many and “incalculable” emotional and psychological loss.

Young targeted mostly vulnerable householders between 2009 and 2013 through his firm Black Diamond Building Services.

His first victim was 84-year-old Katharine Liston, who lived at her cottage in Gartochan, West Dunbartonshire.

An employee of Young initially turned up asking about any maintenance needing to be done.

But a simple report of a damp patch in her porch ended up in massive upheaval at the pensioner’s home.

Prosecutor David Nicolson said: “Not knowing any better and trusting the builders, Mrs Liston agreed to the work. She was appalled at the extent of what was being done. She frequently enquired about costs, but Young was very vague.”

She paid a total of £132,207, but a surveyor later calculated that the true cost of the work would have been £58,740.

Young also targeted 79-year-old Alexander Shepherd at his townhouse in Edinburgh. Young then insisted “more work than anticipated” had arisen. 

Mr Nicolson said: “Young did not carry out any of the work himself and went on to befriend Mr Shepherd telling him about his family. He appeared to be very concerned about telling Mr Shepherd that the work being done was of the highest quality.”

The pensioner paid £172,800 for repairs that should have cost £39,240. The court also heard about a series of other elderly homeowners who were targeted. 

Young, of Doune, Perthshire, was arrested in October 2013 and refused at the time to make any comment to officers. But on the eve of a trial, he admitted his guilt.
His lawyer Graham Robertson told the court he was aware the crimes were “extremely serious matters”.

Mr Robertson said: “He is embarrassed and upset at what ultimately has occurred.”
Young also faces a further hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act next year.

His three sons – Thomas, 28, William, 26, and Michael, 21 – had also faced charges of being involved in the scam, but their not guilty pleas were accepted by prosecutors.