Paul Tapp, 42, has been sentenced to three years in prison after targeting vulnerable people with a fraudulent gutter repair scheme between June 27 and June 29, 2022.
In one case, he approached an elderly man in his 80s in Fareham, offering to carry out guttering work. He requested a £5,000 deposit upfront, which the man paid. However, no work was performed that day. Tapp returned the next day, demanding another £5,000 and presented an inflated invoice totaling £36,000 for supposed garage gutter repairs.
On his third visit, he managed to extract more money from the victim. He instructed the man to claim the payments were going to his “son-in-law” if questioned by the bank. A cleaner at the property grew suspicious and alerted the victim’s son, who contacted the police. Officers arrested Tapp at the scene.
In a separate incident in Horndean, Tapp visited a woman in her 60s, claiming she needed gutter repairs. He quoted her £5,500, taking £2,500 in cash on the spot and requesting the remaining amount via cheque and bank transfer. The next day, the woman received a suspicious call urging her to withdraw more money. Realizing something was wrong, she contacted Action Fraud and her bank, successfully stopping the transfer.
Tapp was charged with two counts of fraud by false representation. He pleaded guilty at Portsmouth Crown Court in April and was sentenced today.
Detective Constable Josh Seaman, who led the investigation, said: “Criminals like Tapp are a blight on our community, but it is down to community spirit and community intelligence that we can drive these offenders out of our areas.”
