A COWBOY plumber who avoided a jail term after hitting a vulnerable pensioner with a bill of over £2,200 after being
called to his Oldbury home to repair a leak has now admitted another 13 charges of fraud.
Steven Greenaway used his status as a self-employed plumber responding to emergency calls to defraud customers in
their own homes by grossly overcharging them for work and materials.
The 41 year old presented a Cradley Heath woman with a bill for £1,527 when an expert estimated a fair and reasonable
cost for the work carried out would have been in the region of £132.50
That represented an overcharge of over 600% by Greenaway who also charged another Warley family £1,200 for work an
expert felt should have taken no more than two hours to complete.
Greenaway, of Marlpool Lane, Kidderminster, pleaded guilty to the 13 charges when he appeared before Recorder Anthony Potter at
Wolverhampton Crown Court.
He denied a further 11 charges involving fraud and furnishing false information and Mr Mark Jackson for the prosecution
said those pleas were accepted.
The recorder remanded Greenaway on bail until March 24th for the preparation of a pre-sentence report with a condition he
continues to reside at his home address.
Greenaway told the 78-year-old Huntington's sufferer at Oldbury he needed a new bath at his home in Pound Road when the
work was totally unnecessary.
Greenaway had denied two charges of fraud but he was found guilty on unanimous verdicts by the seven man-five woman jury.
They retired for just 61 minutes to consider the evidence at the end of the three-day trial before returning their verdicts at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Judge Michael Dudley had earlier directed the panel to find Greenaway not guilty on a third charge of fraud and of stealing £600 from the pensioner.
Greenaway was then given a 12 month supervision order, ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work in the community and
to pay £500 compensation to his victim.
Mr Christopher O'Gorman defending the convicted fraudster told Recorder Potter many of the new offences were committed
at the same time as the two earlier crimes.
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