Two brothers who scammed supermarket shoppers into buying dodgy second-hand televisions have been ordered to pay £300 each in compensation to their victims.
Bernie Sweeney, 25, of Rowan Way, Folkestone, Kent and 34-year-old Thomas Sweeney, of Colne Park Caravan Site, West Drayton, Middlesex, were caught trying to sell the televisions from the back of their van by police in March last year, who arrested them in the car park at Tesco in Risca.
The pair had been spotted by a security guard who then alerted police.
The brothers’ van had a number of what looked like brand new top-of-the-range TVs, which were first thought to be stolen.
Examination of the TVs revealed they were not new, so Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Trading Standards team were called to investigate.
The second-hand TVs had in fact been packaged to look like they were new.
Trading Standards found there had been a number of reports of similar TVs being sold from supermarkets throughout England and Wales – CCTV footage confirmed it was the Sweeneys selling the TVs.
A Llanhilleth man had complained that he had bought a TV from the men for £50 after feeling pressurised to do so, believing it to be a Samsung 3D TV set. When he got home he discovered the TV was not the one on the box, and that it did not work.
The case against the Sweeney brothers was further strengthened when Derbyshire Constabulary were able to obtain forensic evidence following the sale of TV sets in their area.
Bernie Sweeney and Thomas Sweeney were sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on Wednesday, March 9, having previously pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud.
Bernie Sweeney was sentenced to 40 weeks imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to undertake 200 hours unpaid work.
Thomas Sweeney was given a 12-month supervision order and ordered to undertake 200 hours unpaid work. Each brother was ordered to pay £300 in victim compensation.
Cllr Nigel George, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Public Protection, said: “These brothers had been operating across the length and breadth of the country, attempting to defraud unsuspecting consumers wherever they were able.
“Our extremely proactive Trading Standards team work tirelessly to ensure that Caerphilly County Borough residents are protected from such criminality, and the success of this case was undoubtedly due to the hard work and co-operation between our team of officers and colleagues from Derbyshire Constabulary and Gwent Police.”
Sergeant Sarah Greening, of Gwent Police, said; “This investigation demonstrates what can be achieved with close multi-agency working.
“Piecing together the intelligence and evidence gathered from across the country ensured that effective action could be taken, resulting in guilty pleas from both offenders.”
So this unscrupulous pair were conning members of the public out of a great deal of money and doing this across the length and breadth of the country. It took many hours of professional peoples time and effort to catch the crooked pair, trading standards, forensics, police from two different counties, and all they get is a few hours unpaid work and a £300 fine each, the justice system in this country is laughable……and why oh why will folk never learn, if something appears too good to be true then it is too good to be true.
It still amazes me when people buy anything from gentlemen of this origin. Then again I’ve seen people play the three shell/cup game and surprise surprise they loose their money. Next they will be sending bank details to Nigerian princes.