Fake roofer jailed after conning homeowners out of thousands of pounds

A cowboy contractor who fleeced thousands of pounds from homeowners for work he never completed has been jailed.

Jimmy Dolan repeatedly cold-called people to claim there were various things wrong with their house and to offer his services.

Unbeknownst to those whose doors he’d knocked on, many of whom were elderly, he didn’t have the skills needed to carry out the work he’d promised.

He pretended to be someone else entirely on more than one occasion – even taking on the identities of real-life roofing contractors without their knowledge.

Several of the six Retford-based victims targeted by the conman were aged in their eighties and nineties, with each offence taking place between May 2023 and May 2024.

The vast majority of the building work Dolan was paid to do was never completed, while the repairs and refurbishments he did carry out were to a very shoddy standard.

He took more than £15,000 from his victims in total – ripping them off with inflated quotes for roof repairs and other building work that he’d promised to do.

This included around £9,000 from the savings of a woman in her nineties, whose house Dolan knocked on in April 2024, after claiming he’d spotted work needed doing to her conservatory.  

None of this was ever completed to an acceptable standard – if at all – with the conman managing to convince the vulnerable victim to let him fix further apparent issues with her roof too.  

This wasn’t an isolated incident however, with Dolan also swindling money from two of the woman’s elderly neighbours around the same time, between April and May 2024.

He once again made promises he didn’t keep, with one household’s request for new windows resulting in shoddy work, and the other job to fix some roof tiles never being started at all.

Dolan also ripped off three other people in the Retford area, between May 2023 and June 2023 – in one case taking around £3,000 for a series of building work that was never completed.

This again came from Dolan cold calling the address under the pretence of replacing some roof tiles, before making up a series of other jobs that needed doing, while taking upfront payments each time.

His lies would eventually catch up with him however, with police charging the 38-year-old with multiple counts of fraud by false representation.

Dolan, of Trinity Road, Retford, pleaded guilty to his crimes during an appearance at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday (14 October).

He returned to the same court for sentencing on Wednesday (16 October), where he was locked up for four years.

Detective Constable Andy Sibley, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Dolan went out of his way to try and con each of his victims – telling them they needed work doing to their houses and that he could help them.

“None of these promises were ever followed through, with most jobs left uncompleted and the little work he did do falling way below the standards expected for the money he charged.

“In total he pocketed more than £15,000 from his unsuspecting victims, some of whom were in their eighties and nineties and had to dig into their savings to pay him.

“Dolan will have known fully well how much pain his scheming would cause to the people he targeted, but he didn’t care and went through with it anyway.

“We’re pleased to see he’s now been punished for his crimes and will spend the next few years in prison thinking about what he did.”