Tonight:
2°c
'Rogue Trader' locksmith guilty of defrauding customers
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent22 Jul 2010
A locksmith once exposed on BBC TV's Rogue Traders was convicted at the Old Bailey today of ripping off customers across London.
Mark Makowski, 40, over charged by thousands of pounds after being called out to get people back into their homes.
He has a long history of exploiting vulnerable and desparate householders and was convicted in 2003 after an investigation by Hertfordshire County Council.
Makowski was trapped again in August 2008 after Westminster City Council Trading Standards carried out a sting using officers posing as members of the public.
The court heard his company Pronto Locks advertised itself on the internet as "probably the largest locksmith company in London and the south east."
But answereing calls by stranded customers he would cause unnecessary damage by drilling out locks instead of using expert methods and then fit cheap replacements.
Makowski was found guilty of defrauding 13 customers including two incidents involving trading standards officers.
Among his victims were Catherine Shand from Welwyn Garden City, Herts, who was quoted £128 but ended up being billed £462.95 for 45 minutes work in April 2007.
Lance Tuckett from Kentish Town, was charged £1,160 for replacing two locks which he had to replace a few days later at a cost of only £154.
Jackie Cannell from Highbury, was charged £1,670.85 after Makowski replaced the front door locks and installed six window locks in November 2007.
He had originally quoted her £200 to replace her door locks and the materials he used for the whole job only cost £94, the court heard.
In court Makowski remained defiant and claimed that his work was cost effective and practical in the circumstances.
"Every locksmith works differently. Everyone has their preferred methods," he told the jury.
Makowski said his favoured tool to gain access was a piece of plastic to slip open the lock but if that failed after three minutes he would drill the lock out.
He admitted he never used a specialist letter box tool to open doors.
Jurors have heard how in the two "test" operations, an expert locksmith was able to get in using a piece of plastic to slip the lock or a letter box tool.
Makowski, of Broxbourne, Herts, had denied 15 counts of fraud by false representation.
Outside court Sue Jones, Head of Trading Standards, said: "We are delighted that justice has finally caught up with this trader, who charged his customers large sums of money for a very poor quality and often totally unnecessary work. We hope the fact that his activity was proved to be fraudulent sends out a clear message to other traders who may be tempted to behave in this way."
Makowski had the words "Rogue Trader" as a screen saver on his mobile phone, the court heard.
Bail was refused and he was remanded in custody to be sentenced on 31 August.
Judge Anthony Morris told him it would be "inevitable that a substantial amount of imprisonment will be imposed on you."
He added: "This is a case of great seriousness."
Cabinet member for Business, Enterprise and Skills, Cllr Brian Connell said: "His despicable behaviour dates back over a number of years, and he didn't care who his victims were or their financial situation, young, old, rich or poor, they were all considered fair game to satisfy his greed. It's a credit to the work of our trading standards team and other agencies who doggedly pursued this crook to bring him to justice.
"We welcome this verdict which will hopefully serve as a lesson to others who are tempted to exploit in this way; we will always act to protect the public from crooks like this."
John Peerless, Trading Standards Regional Fraud Unit Manager said: “It was the need to tackle just this sort of complex criminality with offences in many local authority areas that led to BIS funding the Regional Scambuster projects. This man has been trading in this way for many years to the detriment of many hundreds of consumers made vulnerable when locked out of their properties."
Reader views (1)
let;s see him pick the locks on his cell. This has cheered me up no end.
- Kerry, Purley, 22/07/2010 20:21
Report abuse
