Cowboy builder URINATED in lofts and hid dead birds in roofs of pensioners' homes to convince them to hand over thousands of pounds for repairs for 'leaks'

Callous: Donovan Clough was jailed for 4 years for fleecing pensioners out of thousands for work that was not needed on there homes

A cowboy builder has been jailed for four years for urinating in lofts and putting dead birds into roofs to con vulnerable pensioners into paying 'obscene' amounts for unneeded home repairs.
Donovan Ross Morley-Clough, 22, used a string of 'disgraceful ploys' to fleece a dementia sufferer and other elderly people out of thousands of pounds.
He claimed he was a Christian who worked with the Age UK charity while targeting men and women in their 70s and 80s by cold-calling at their homes and convincing them they needed house repairs, York Crown Court was told.
Many of his victims were disabled, included dementia sufferer Joyce Lister, a frail 87-year-old who has since died, it was said.
Morley-Clough also preyed on another dementia sufferer and a pensioner with Parkinson's disease who were among his victims.
Prosecutor Georgina Coade told the court Morley-Clough would talk his way into victims’ homes, often telling them he had seen a bird fly into the roof.
He would offer to retrieve it and get into their lofts before inventing a catalogue of false problems including urinating in lofts to present the homeowner with wet insulation, dipping roofing material in water tanks and presenting it as evidence of leaks or damp, and removing slates so water could drip through ceilings.
He also brought dead birds into houses and claimed they had been nesting in the roofs and even built a nest out of a hay bale and placed it on a roof top himself.
Victims were quoted 'obscene' prices and he reduced perfectly good roofs to ones needing thousands of pounds of repairs.
In one case he drove an 84-year-old woman to her bank so she could withdraw £2,000.
He is known to have taken over £15,000 from his victims, but paperwork seized by trading standards officers shows that over he tried to get £44,000 but some of his targets got suspicious.

Miss Coade said Clough claimed to be qualified and a Christian affiliated to Age UK.
But the college drop-out had only completed seven and a half months of a bricklaying course and the only bona fide business he had run was washing car windows.
'The reality is he is a conman who based his entire business on deceiving vulnerable people,' she said.
'He would grossly over charge for any work he did do and any work done was of terrible standard.
'Frequently, he would leave their homes in a worse state than they had been in before so remedial works would be needed.'

Disgrace: Morley-Clough urinated in lofts and hid dead birds in roofs to convince vulnerable pensioners to part with thousands of pounds for unnecessary repairs, York Crown Court, pictured, heard

Morley-Clough, 22, of Riccall, North Yorkshire, admitted 14 counts of engaging in a commercial practice in an unprofessional manner, two of participating in a fraudulent business and two of fraud by false representation - all relating to bogus roofing work committed over 14 months in the York, Wetherby and Selby areas between December 2011 and February this year.
Andrew Semple, mitigating, said his client suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and had a history of suicidal behaviour.
He had even written a letter to the court claiming he regards himself as a 'victim'.
Passing sentence, The Recorder of York Judge Stephen Ashurst, said: 'There were a number of frankly disgraceful ploys used by you to persuade these people to part with their money.
'You were very persistent - going back time and time again to put customers under pressure. Some were driven to their banks to withdraw money because for obvious reasons you preferred cash.
'The elderly brood on these incidents. They feel a fool and can’t understand why they were taken in.
'In this case it is easy to see why. You had the gift of the gab, saying you were a Christian doing them a good turn.
'You are a complete hypocrite.
'Decent members of the community treat the elderly and vulnerable with respect and understanding, but by your conduct you have shown in this case you saw such people as easy targets for fraud.'
Clough was also given an ASBO banning him from trading or advertising as a roofer for ten years.
Two of Donovan Clough’s victims have died since proceedings began.
Sergeant Amanda Reader, of North Yorkshire Police, said after the case concluded yesterday: 'Clough is a convincing and cunning conman, who chose to target elderly and vulnerable victims.
'They were tricked into paying extortionate amounts of money for work that was actually substandard to that which should have been expected.'

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