A tradesman seeking to mend his way after being jailed for a mean fraud has been brought back to court for flouting a strict order he received as part of his sentence.
Ralph Brook, 49, was given a 43-month jail term in November, 2021, after he admitted three fraud charges. Brook was caught on a covertly-installed camera targeting a 96-year-old dementia sufferer living alone in Kendal having fleeced him of more than £5,000.
As part of his punishment, Brook was made subject to a 10-year criminal behaviour order (CBO) aimed at halting further offending and protecting the public.
He was banned from approaching any householders in England and Wales and offering to carry out work on their homes; and from working at any dwelling other than his own.
A copy of the CBO was sent to Brook while he served his sentence at Durham Prison.
The dad-of-two, of Brough, near Kirkby Stephen, left custody in August and moved to Carlisle.
City magistrates heard police were alerted by a bank on Wednesday this week to a “suspicious transaction” as someone tried to pay heavily-convicted Brook £5,000 for building work at his home.
Police went to that Carlisle address and saw Brook carrying out work with tools “scattered about”, said prosecutor Andy Travis.
Initially tasked with a small job, Brook, it emerged, had then been asked by the satisfied householder to fit a new bathroom and radiators.
Following his prison release, Brook had been helped by the probation service to obtain qualifications and advertise his services as an experienced heating and plumbing engineer. But crucially, the court heard, an administrative error meant the probation service had no record of the court-imposed CBO on their system.
Defence lawyer John Greenwood said: “It is accepted the order was made but the terms didn’t register (with Brook).”
There was no suggestion of any concerns or fraud linked to the Carlisle job. Probation were not seeking Brook’s return to prison despite the breach. “He has worked hard,” said Mr Greenwood, “to get his life back on track. It is purely and simply that he hasn’t stuck to the wording of the CBO.”
Magistrates committed the case for sentence to Carlisle Crown Court on March 31 and in the meantime granted Brook, of Tullie Street, bail.
