Two conmen who harassed and manipulated 'vulnerable' elderly victims to pay extortionate fees for unnecessary building work have been sentenced.

After a year on the run Michael Casey, 40, from Potters Bar, handed himself in to police and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud two victims in Lewisham and Camden.

On Thursday Casey was jailed for eight years at Woolwich Crown Court.

Trevor Lee-Shield, 56, from Westminster, was sentenced to three and a half years' imprisonment, suspended for two years.

He was found guilty on July 10 after pleading not guilty to fraud by false representation in relation to both victims.

Casey and Lee-Shield were two members of a gang who convinced victims their homes needed renovation before bombarding them with hundreds of calls and sometimes verbally abusing them.

One of the victims - a 69-year-old man from Lewisham - paid them almost £100,000 and was on the brink of handing over the deeds to his house following months of manipulation.

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Left to right: Michael Casey, Johnny Casey (top) and Trevor Lee-Shield.

In his victim impact statement, the Lewisham victim said: "I feel the people who did this to me are the sort of people that should be put away for a long time. I think that if police had not got involved they would not have stopped demanding money from me."

Casey's nephew Johnny Casey, 22, from Camden, also pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation in relation to the Camden victim. 

Following the result Detective Constable Siobhan Cowlin, of the London Crime Squad, condemned the gang's "deplorable" actions.

She said: “The gang chose vulnerable victims and embarked on a campaign of extortion. Michael Casey was pivotal, bombarding victims with calls - first to befriend them, then to strong-arm them into paying spiralling costs.

“He convinced the victim in Lewisham to talk to him in code, using the names ‘Bravo one’ and ‘Bravo two’ so that he knew he was not speaking to police when he rang - although this didn’t work for him in the long run.

“Such was Michael Casey’s arrogance, after calling the victim to harass him for a further £11,000, he convinced the victim that he should buy him a carton of cigarettes costing £120 as a Christmas present."