A gran says she was left "extremely angry" after being swindled out of hundreds of pounds by a serial fraudster - who blew his victims' money on gambling and porn.
Sue Cashman, 74, was one of 89 people targeted by window shutter installer Lewis Blake, who took clients' cash and disappeared without completing any work.
The retired primary school teacher says she is pleased that the 43-year-old, from Whitstable, Kent, is now behind bars, following a sentencing hearing earlier this month.
She said: “It made me very annoyed and extremely angry that someone dared come into my house and purport to be doing something useful and blatantly taking my money.”
Between August 2020 and May 2021, Blake took £64,774 from victims across the county, offering made-up excuses as to why the work was never done.
Between 2019 and 2022, it was found Blake had ordered just 14 shutters while splashing out more than £100,000 gambling and £14,000 on adult websites.
Ms Cashman was contacted by him in September 2020 after looking through a national website which sells window shutters.
The Canterbury resident was says she was offered the blinds for a cheaper rate and felt she was helping a local small business.
Sue Cashman, 74, was one of 89 people targeted by window shutter installer Lewis Blake, who took clients' cash and disappeared without completing any work.
The retired primary school teacher says she is pleased that the 43-year-old, from Whitstable, Kent, is now behind bars, following a sentencing hearing earlier this month.
She said: “It made me very annoyed and extremely angry that someone dared come into my house and purport to be doing something useful and blatantly taking my money.”
Between August 2020 and May 2021, Blake took £64,774 from victims across the county, offering made-up excuses as to why the work was never done.
Between 2019 and 2022, it was found Blake had ordered just 14 shutters while splashing out more than £100,000 gambling and £14,000 on adult websites.
Ms Cashman was contacted by him in September 2020 after looking through a national website which sells window shutters.
The Canterbury resident was says she was offered the blinds for a cheaper rate and felt she was helping a local small business.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Well I contacted him, no he contacted me realising I needed blinds and came round to the house
00:06and measured up. He had samples, he was very pleasant, very friendly, very nice and I paid
00:13half of the money which was £450 and he said that they would come in December. They didn't
00:19come in December, I emailed and asked about them and got an increasingly bizarre range
00:25of excuses that I got more suspicious of. My son and I went and looked at where the
00:30business premises were supposed to be and there was nothing in that road. The Facebook
00:36post closed and then I found another Facebook post saying it was all a big scam and through
00:44that 82 of us gathered together realising we'd all been scammed in exactly the same
00:49way and some of us got our money back, I did, a lot didn't, a lot had paid a lot more
00:55than me and after a very long drawn out process he's finally been charged and sentenced and
01:01gone to prison. Good.