A COLD caller who targeted a vulnerable 93-year-old woman and charged her £1,000 for cleaning her drive with a power washer has been jailed for a year.

Sean Ayres told the pensioner the bill was £120 - but after finishing the work demanded £1,000.

The victim wrote a cheque out for the cash because she did not want any “argy bargy”, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Ayres, 21, then returned a few days later with an invoice for work he falsely claimed he had done on the woman’s roof at the same time, asking her to sign for it.

But a neighbour intervened, prosecutor Andrew Finlay said, and after the alarm was raised Ayres – who was already on bail for a similar offence – was arrested, making no comment.

CCTV footage showed him cashing the cheque he had been given at a bank.

In a victim impact statement, the woman’s son said she had been shaken and lost confidence, also suffering declining health afterwards.

Ayres, originally from Glasgow, Scotland, but more recently living in Cudworth, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, admitted two counts of fraud and five of breaching unfair trading regulations.

The offences arose from two separate incidents in April and August last year in Harrogate and Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

In the earlier incident Ayres called on an elderly couple offering to clean their patio and was described as “appearing polite and genuine”.

He also offered to repair a garage roof – both jobs costing £600 in total. While present at the property Ayres asked for £400 to buy materials for the roof and for petrol for his car.

Mr Finlay said the defendant became pushy saying he would go with the male householder to the building society for the money.

He was given the £400 and was asked to leave items behind so it could be ensured he came back and finished the job.

But he refused and sped off in a van – followed by the householder who lost him in traffic. The victim in a statement said: “I should have listened to my instincts and not trusted this fast-talking man.

“I do ask myself who I can now trust in the future.”

When he was quizzed about the April offences, Ayres claimed he gone to the property with another man from a traveller’s site who he was frightened of, but no trace of this individual was found.

Ayres, who had been on an 167-day electronically monitored curfew, was said to lack maturity, with a report describing him as low-risk of reoffending. He was of previous good character.

Judge Tony Briggs said Ayres had caused a good deal of distress. He said: “This sort of behaviour must be discouraged and the courts must turn their faces against it.”