Five men appear in court charged with fraud offences after alleged rogue trader incident

Five men have appeared in court charged with fraud offences after an alleged rogue trader incident in Lynn led to a police chase towards Cambridgeshire.The men – aged between 18 and 52 – appeared before Norwich Magistrates’ Court on Friday morning following an incident last Tuesday.It comes after police said a man reported being defrauded by a group of rogue traders who approached him at his home address on Orchard Grove and told him his roof required repairs.

He gave them £5,000 and they completed some of the work to what officers said was an unsatisfactory standard.The group of men returned the following day and claimed they were police officers, telling him to leave a further £5,000 on his doorstep.Officers from the Roads and Armed Policing Team located the vehicle used by the suspects on Wednesday afternoon on the A47 in Tilney All Saints. The vehicle failed to stop for police and a pursuit began, heading towards March in Cambridgeshire.The vehicle stopped a short while later and two of the occupants fled the scene. The remaining three were arrested. Officers, assisted by colleagues from Cambridgeshire Police, searched the local area and the two outstanding suspects were located.All five were taken to Lynn Police Investigation Centre for questioning.The men’s charges are as follows: – Kenny Hughes, 33, of Cranfield Park Avenue, Wickford, has been charged with dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified, driving without insurance, and conspiracy to defraud. Hughes had also been charged with failing to stop but this has now been withdrawn from the case- Craig Robertson, 36, of Windsor Street, Luton, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud- Kevin Price, 18, of Dunstable Road, Leighton Buzzard, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud- Tommy Brown, 23, of Church Road, Romford, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud – Kenny Hughes, 52, of St Thomas’ Road, Luton, has been charged with conspiracy to defraudTheir case has been sent to Norwich Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing to take place on November 1.The defendants have not officially entered pleas yet.