A GREAT Missenden mother's persistence has led to fines and costs of £22,000 being slapped on a plumbing firm and its heating engineer.

Father-of-two Stephen Hammick, an engineer contracted by Uxbridge-based Pro-fix Plumbing and Electrical Ltd, was convicted at Aylesbury Crown Court on Wednesday of trying to con Mary Bradford, of Great Hampden, Great Missenden, when he came to fix her boiler on May 24, 2001.

Mrs Bradford, a senior manager of Nationwide Building Society, suspected Hammick, of Gaylor Road, Northolt, had charged her £164 for a new gas valve which was actually just the old one re-installed.

She told the jury Hammick could not provide a receipt, but said the part came from a company in Slough. She also said Hammick told her he was Corgi registered.

Buckinghamshire Trading Standards charged Hammick with putting a false description of a replacement valve on a company receipt for £164.80, lying about where the valve came from, and lying about his Corgi membership.

Hammick had denied all charges, and said he couldn't remember details of the visit but assured the court that if a new valve was not needed he would have fixed the original.

Hammick, who had no previous convictions, was found guilty by unanimous jury verdicts on all three counts.

Former Pro-fix director Mark McCabe, 36, also appeared for sentencing, having already been convicted of conniving in false trade descriptions in adverts in Thomson Directories and the Yellow Pages and a website giving bogus business logos, addresses and trade accreditations.

McCabe, of Oxford Road, Uxbridge, had his sentence adjourned for pre-sentence reports, but fines totalling £14,000 and £2,560 costs were dished out to Pro-fix.

Hammick was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £2,500 prosecution costs and £150 compensation to Mrs Bradford.

Passing sentence on Hammick, Judge Daniel Serota QC said: "I accept it is one matter but it really is a mean and nasty offence which I regret to say is all too prevalent when members of the public are ripped off by tradesmen."

January 24, 2003 11:00