A PRISON sentence was a "fitting" punishment for an ex-roofing firm boss who overcharged a Flintshire woman by tens of thousands of pounds for substandard work, a senior councillor has said.

The Standard reported last week how 40-year-old Richard Whelan, of Blacon, was jailed for 18 months and disqualified from being a company director for five years.

He had admitted numerous regulatory offences pertaining to a roofing job he took on for a Holywell resident named Julie Hughes in 2019.

Initially Whelan, who at the time was director of RPW Roofing Services Limited, quoted the complainant £14,000 to re-roof her bungalow and an extra £3,500 to roof an extension which was to be built by someone else.

As the work continued, he told her on numerous occasions that he had incurred extra cost and that various other things would need to be completed or installed at the property - inflating the price.

Between August and November 2019, the complainant gave him more than £40,000 in bank transfers and cash.

Councillor Chris Bithell, Flintshire Council's cabinet member for planning and public protection, said:

“The guilty plea and the punishment imposed was, on this occasion, fitting for such a dreadful case which not only took so much of the lady’s savings but also has had a traumatic impact on her.

"This case shows how Flintshire’s Community and Business Protection Service is willing and able to take necessary action to bring such fraudsters before the courts and ensure that they are punished and hopefully will be unable to take advantage of other vulnerable members of the community in Flintshire. "The service continues to investigate allegations of rogue traders working in the County.”

At the sentencing hearing, Judge David Hale told Whelan: "You went to this job and you used that as a cash cow.

"You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself."