Michael Andrews jailed: Cowboy plumber who made elderly and vulnerably residents lives a misery

A cowboy plumber has been jailed for three years after he made the precious final moments of his terminally ill victims lives hell after promising to install walk-in bathrooms while actually pocketing their life savings, a court heard.

Untrained Michael Andrews, of Nine Mile Ride, Wokingham, shamelessly marketed his firm as a respectable family business which provided bespoke wet rooms for severely disabled and elderly people.

However, the brazen conman hardly ever delivered on his projects, instead gaining his vulnerable victims trust with a series of lies before pocketing their deposit money which he blew on booze.

A judge heard that on the few occasions he did install the promised bathrooms, his work was so shoddy and dangerous that his customers were lucky to avoid severe electrocution from exposed wires.

His victims included an extremely vulnerable 79-year-old who could no longer climb the stairs and a woman with cancer who only had weeks to live.

Reading Crown Court was told on Friday 20 March how he repeatedly failed to turn up for work, fobbing off some victims by telling them that his brother - who he claimed ran the family firm with him - had suddenly and unexpectedly died.

However, this was just one of a web of lies he repeatedly wove around his business to keep anguished customers at bay, meaning for many of them their final moments were spent in sleepless turmoil.

The court heard how in September 2012 the 49-year-old had promised Philip Tidbury that he would construct a downstairs bathroom for his 79-year-old mother-in-law Rosemary, who was frail and could no longer climb the stairs.

He took a 1,500 deposit from Mr Tidbury but never turned up to carry out the work, meaning frail Rosemary had to move into a care home. She died there a few weeks later.

In April the following year he took a similar job for Brian Williams, whose wife Jane had been diagnosed with cancer and was wheelchair bound. This time Mr Williams paid a 1,400 deposit on the work, which was meant to be used to buy the materials needed for the job.

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Michael Andrews jailed: Cowboy plumber who made elderly and vulnerably residents lives a misery