A PARK Royal man has been jailed for trying to dupe elderly people out of thousands of pounds.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Francis Dunne, 24, of Bashley Road, was one of four men who targeted their victims by visiting their homes and telling them their properties needed urgent and expensive repairs.

Dunne and his accomplices Peter Gilheney, 27, from Romford, Essex, Patrick O’Driscoll, 36, and 30-year-old James Casey, both from Potters Bar, Herts, were snared after the Met’s crime squad teamed with Trading Standards to investigate the cowardly gang.

Jurors heard in December last year, a vulnerable 63-year-old man in Harold Wood, Essex, was forced into allowing the gang to re-lay his drive and was also told he needed a damp survey done.

He was told if he refused to agree legal action would be taken against him.

The next day a 79-year-old woman was called up and coerced into making an appointment for ‘problem’ guttering at her home in Dawes Road, Fulham.

All four men visited her home and told her the job would cost �10,000.

She paid a deposit of �2,000 to O’Driscoll.

However, a chartered surveyor who examined her guttering as part of the police investigation concluded the damage had been deliberately caused and would have cost no more than �3,000 to rectify.

All four men admitted two counts of fraud by false representation.

Dunne and O’Driscoll were sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail, Casey must serve two year and Gilheney received seven years.