A COWBOY builder who was involved with a business which conned vulnerable pensioners out of thousands of pounds spent his ill-gotten gains on holidays abroad, a court heard.

Runcorn dad Keith Gilbert was sentenced to 19 months in prison at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday after admitting acquiring criminal property as part of his role in the building scam.

Trusting residents across the north west were left thousands of pounds out of pocket after enlisting the help of Northwest UPVC.

One pensioner handed over £4,750 of his hard-earned savings to a company he thought he could trust – he was left in floods of tears as he told the court how he was conned.

Prosecuting Owen Edwards told the court how the 39-year-old first started to work at Northwest UPVC in 2014 after his taxi licence was temporarily suspended as part of an investigation, which was later dropped.

But he started to take on more responsibility for the company after owner Mark Miles, of Newmore Lane, Sandymoor in Ruincorn suffered a series of health problems.

Miles, of Greenbridge Close, Castlefields, also referred to Gilbert as his 'business partner' in a meeting with Halton Trading Standards after a number of complaints were raised.

Gilbert also set up a 'virtual office' and a company bank account in his name.

Defending Jeremy Lasker said Gilbert’s decision to work with Miles was based on a financial need while he waited for the outcome of the investigation.

Mr Lasker told the court that Gilbert hoped to turn the company into a genuine business.

He said: “He is not a defendant who set out to dupe clients himself and he is not a defendant who went out with the intention to defraud customers.”

But the court heard how a number of customers paid Northwest UPVC for work in advance – but the jobs were never completed.

As customers desperately tried to get to the bottom of the delay, Gilbert ignored their calls.

The business used canvassers to cold-call to generate leads and then Miles would visit, negotiate a price and take a cash deposit.

Elderly customers were duped into believing that by paying upfront their building work would be carried out within days.

Judge Robert Trevor-Jones, sentencing, accepted Gilbert was not the ‘moving force’ at the company but ordered him to serve an immediate custodial sentence.

The 39-year-old was found to have benefited by £17,190 - the judge ordered him to hand the sum of money over in compensation to the victims after the court was told he had equity in a holiday home in Spain.

If he does not pay the money back in three months he faces a further 10 months behind bars.

The proceedings against Miles were conducted under the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act after he was declared unfit to plead following a brain injury sustained in January 2015.

The jury unanimously found Miles guilty of knowingly carrying on a business for a fraudulent purpose and 11 counts of dishonestly making a false representation under the Fraud Act.

Miles was sentenced to a two-year supervision order, the maximum possible in such circumstances.