A cowboy roofer from Ledbury has been jailed for fleecing elderly victims out of their life savings by charging thousands of pounds for unnecessary and bungled work.

Phillip Small targeted pensioners living on their own who needed minor repairs and tempted them with small quotes which shot up as soon as he started work.

He often removed parts of roofs, leaving homes open to the rain, before demanding huge sums to finish the job.

Small, aged 41, left a trail of vulnerable victims across Cornwall , Devon , and the South West over three years.

His victims included an 86-year-old Alzheimer’s sufferer and a 76-year-old partially blinded widow and he plundered all but £1,100 of one pensioner’s life savings in just 18 days.

Small was jailed for two and a half years at Exeter Crown Court after a judge heard how many of his victims had been left impoverished, stressed and upset.

He made more than £100,000 out of 12 victims of whom the youngest was 60 and the oldest 89. He used false names and invented bogus companies with false addresses to prevent his dissatisfied customers catching up with him.

Small, aged 41, of Woodlands Park , Ledbury, admitted three offences of deception and one of running a fraudulent business.

He was jailed for 30 months by Judge John Neligan at Exeter Crown Court and now faces the seizure of his assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act.