THREE rogue roofers who ripped off a wheelchair-bound pensioner and her disabled son have been locked up.

Two of the men, Simon McArthur and Rocky Allen, claimed in court they did not realise that their victims were vulnerable, and had not targeted them at their home.

The pair were close to tears and in shock when Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, refused to accept their lies and jailed them for ten months.

One bleated "wow, we're sorry" and the other whimpered "can we speak Your Honour?"

They held their heads in their hands as they were taken from Teesside Crown Court to start their sentences at nearby Holme House Prison.

Accomplice Geoffrey Smith, 23, who appeared via a live video-link from Holme House as he awaits sentence for drugs charges, was jailed for eight months.

The court heard how the three men turned up at the house in Easingwold, North Yorkshire, offering to trim a fir tree and agreed a £70 price.

After the job, they were asked to cut down three sycamores for £70 - but then Allen lyingly claimed they roof of a bay window was leaking.

The three went off to buy materials and returned with a roll of rough roof felt, a bucket and some tar.

They charged the householder £520 for a job which an expert said was not needed, of poor quality and should have cost no more than £115.

Lawyer Alex Williams, representing McArthur and Allen, said they did not realise the man had severe mental health problems, or that his elderly mother was disabled.

But the court heard yesterday how they had been in the same room as the woman, who was unable to see them properly because of lack of sight.

Judge Bourne-Arton told the three, from nearby York: "You ripped them off, in crude language, and you did so willingly for your own greed.

"While there, I have no doubt you were in a position to assess his disability and his mothers, who was in a wheelchair and is in her 80s.

"For you to submit that through your counsel, I do not accept for one minute, therefore you deliberately targeted people who are vulnerable."

Mr Williams, who represented both, said they were ashamed and regretted what they had done, but insisted they had not picked on the family.

He said of 22-year-old Allen: "He is a grafter and has always worked as a labourer for his family. He was immature and naive, he accepts that.

"He is an enterprising young man who had hoped to set up his own gardening business and went to the address to carry out gardening work."

Of McArthur, 26, he added: "He went to do gardening. That's a profession in which he has qualifications, horticulture and landscaping.

"Now he recognises that by continuing to do the roof, they crossed boundaries into something they didn't know and were out of their depth."

Smith's lawyer, Holly Betke, told the court: "He didn't really put much thought into what he was doing or the small profit that would come."

McArthur, of Lowther Terrace, Allen, of Fossway, and Smith, of Fifth Avenue, all York, admitted a charge of fraud from November last year.

The three men were brought to justice following an investigation by the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Team based at North Yorkshire County Council.

The multi-agency team is the first of its kind in the UK and brings together county council trading standards officers, North Yorkshire Police and a safeguarding manager from the county council’s adult services.

Its task is to protect the elderly and vulnerable from fraudsters and financial abuse crimes from scam mail to doorstep crime, investment fraud, courier frauds, romance frauds or financial abuse by family members or carers.

“This fraud is of the worst kind because it preys on people’s vulnerability,” said County Councillor Chris Metcalfe, North Yorkshire’s Executive Member for Trading Standards. “People lose lots of money by it, but they also lose any sense of security, they lose their confidence and their trust is betrayed with devastating consequences for their sense of well-being.

“This is a very distressing case and fraudsters need to know that if they prey on vulnerable people in this way, we will come after them and they will be punished.  We welcome a sentence of imprisonment  for these men.”