Bogus landscape gardener who left a trail of incomplete work defrauding his customers out of £50,000 is jailed for three years and ordered to pay £25,000 compensation
- Christopher Hood, 53, left a number of jobs incomplete between 2017 and 2019
- Hood was eventually brought to task by trading standards officers
A bogus landscape gardener who defrauded his customers out of more than £50,000 by leaving a trail of incomplete work has been jailed and ordered to pay compensation.
Christopher Hood, 53, must pay £25,000 back after he left a number jobs incomplete when his business began to fail between 2017 and 2019.
Teesside Crown Court heard how he was forced off one site as his work was substandard before going on to rip off a further seven customers.
He was eventually brought to task by trading standards officers.
Hood, who is from Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to one charge of engaging in unfair business practices and seven counts of fraud between 2017 and 2019.
Christopher Hood, 53, has been jailed for three years and ordered to pay £25,000 in compensation after he left a number jobs incomplete (pictured) when his business began to fail between 2017 and 2019
An image of the one of the several houses that Hope failed to complete
The court heard how Hood’s relationship had broken down and he was selling a home which he was set to receive £25,000 from.
Judge Jonathan Carroll told him: ‘I do not say that your landscape business was fraudulent from the outset, there’s no evidence to suggest that, but it became fraudulent.
‘In July 2017 you agreed to do some work for one family, this agreement was not fraudulent but because of your inability to competently run your business, it became out of hand, unworkable, there was a substantial delay, and the quality was poor at best.
‘As a result, the family and their friends told you to get off site and thereafter you refused to return and left them substantially out of pocket.’
The judge told Hood that the head injury he suffered in early 2019 was not an excuse for the frauds he committed afterwards.
He added: ‘You tendered for a job that you had no reasonable prospect of completing. ‘You took money even though you hadn’t come round to do any work and, on each occasion, leaving them significantly out of pocket.’
Another image of a garden that was incomplete, which has now led to Hope having to pay compensation
Teesside Crown Court (pictured) heard how the 53-year-old was forced off one site as his work was substandard before going on to rip off a further seven customers
Gary Wood, mitigating, said his client had been drinking heavily and gambling at the time of the offences but was now in a much better place and was working for another landscaping business.
He added: ‘He never set up this business to rip off people. The defendant had fallen in difficult times financially.’
Speaking after the sentencing, Councillor Carrie Richardson, the deputy leader of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said: ‘We have highly professional and dedicated professional Trading Standards officers who will do what it takes to protect the public – and that very much includes bringing people to justice at court.
‘A decision to go to court is not taken lightly but we will not hesitate to do it to protect law-abiding people.’
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