THREE fraudsters have been jailed for nearly 10 years after conning tradesmen out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Beverley Smith, Alan Holloway and Thomas Major operated alleged not-for-profit businesses claiming to offer home improvements funded by energy saving grants.

But these grants never existed, and the trio’s swindle left one trader £150,000 out of pocket while a gas fitter was made bankrupt as a result.

On Friday, March 16, they were jailed for almost 10 years by his honour judge Nicholas Woodward at Chester Crown Court following a four-week trial.

Smith, of Alexandra Street in Padgate, was jailed for 21 months after the 52-year-old was found guilty of fraudulent trading.

Sixty-year-old Alan Holloway, from Winsford, and 58-year-old Thomas Major, from Liverpool, were also found guilty of fraudulent trading and given five and three years behind bars respectively.

An investigation by National Trading Standards found that they had operated businesses under several different names – including the Energy Saving Fund, Homestead, Prostall, Procell and Alliance UK – offered home improvements funded by grants that never existed.

Major himself also had several pseudonyms – including Thomas Adams, Thomas Peterson, John Major and Joseph Major.

Advertisements in newspapers and leaflets distributed to homes across the north west stating that all homes were eligible for limited availability private sector-funded grants generated ‘huge’ interest, with more than 50,000 enquiries received in the space of 20 months.

Around 2,500 contracts for home improvements were secured, with homeowners told they were eligible for grants of a third of work.

The defendants falsely claimed that national companies including Pilkington, Marley, Worcester Bosch and VEKA were making the contributions.

One homeowners had decided to go ahead with improvements, the fraudsters commissioned work to take place at a lower price than quoted to the customer.

Workmen were told that they would be reimbursed with the non-existent grants once work was completed, and left out of pocket.

John Pierce from National Trading Standards’ north west regional investigations team said: “The defendants created the illusion that the Energy Saving Fund and its grants existed.

“However, they knew this was all a complete fabrication designed to allow them to mislead consumers and defraud contractors.

“The financial impact on the traders they defrauded was in several cases very significant, with one case seeing a contractor left £150,000 out of pocket.

“This case also highlights the need for consumers to be vigilant when responding to adverts online, in newspapers or flyers that come through their doors.”

Sentencing, judge Woodward described Major as a ‘conman’ and said that Smith and Holloway had allowed themselves to become ‘trapped by the lure of money’.

He added that such schemes have ‘real victims, damage public confidence and undermine commercial life’.

National Trading Standards chairman Lord Toby Harris said: “These individuals misled consumers and defrauded legitimate traders purely for their own financial benefit.

“It am pleased that the work of National Trading Standards means that they are now receiving the justice they deserve.”