Friday, July 29, 2005

Plumber fined for taking a leak

So if this guy knew he was being filmed, why didn't he behave himself instead of doing something that would destroy his career? Yeesh!
A plumber caught on camera relieving himself in a customer's loft has been fined and ordered to do 150 hours community service.
Roy Williams, 46, from East Grinstead, Sussex, was captured by hidden cameras urinating into a vase and pouring it into the water tank at a Surrey house.
He was fined £250 and told to pay costs and compensation of more than £4,000.
He was also convicted of attempted deception after charging £173 for replacing valves that were not faulty.
Williams was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday.
Rubber duck
The court was told Williams had to urinate after being overcome by "bright lights and the sound of running water" and because of a medical condition.
But after sentencing he said he deliberately acted illegally to expose Trading Standards.
The court was told officers with Surrey Trading Standards rented the house in Leatherhead for six months and rigged it with hidden cameras.

They concealed cameras inside everyday objects including cereal boxes and a rubber duck in an attempt to catch out various workmen called to the house.
The court heard after Williams tipped urine into the water system it cost £700 to have it flushed out.
He was convicted of attempted deception, making false trades description and making a reckless statement, having denied all the charges.
His barrister Roy Taylor said Williams had lost his business and that the trade of his wife's post office business was damaged after the CCTV footage was released to the media.
He said the couple and their three children, aged 16, 15 and 13, would be selling the post office and moving to another part of the UK.
'No complaints'
Sentencing Williams, Recorder Rebecca Brown said: "Householders expect and deserve a high standard of work when they invite tradesmen into their home. The relationship has to be based on trust.
"On this occasion you exploited what you must have assumed to be this householder's lack of knowledge for financial gain."
After being sentenced Williams said he had worked for 23 years with no complaints and claimed he knew Trading Standards were filming him and wanted to expose them.
He said: "They are out to get the working man who's good with his hands.
"I have always been an honest man. This has destroyed my life."
Steve Playle, the Trading Standards officer who led the sting, said Williams was among 25% of home maintenance traders "whose only aim is to rip customers off" and said he was very pleased with the conviction.

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