A dishonest TV aerial repair man convicted of conning customers is being hunted by police – and is now believed to be overseas.
Keith Matthews (59) jumped bail and failed to attend court for his trial. The case went ahead without him.
After he was convicted yesterday, jurors were told the conman had been exposed in a BBC Rogue Traders television programme in 2008 for similar malpractice.
They had not been told about the programme during the trial because the judge ruled the information would be too prejudicial.
The jurors were also not given a reason for Matthews's absence during the five-day trial.
However, after the verdicts were announced, Judge Philip Head said Matthews, along with his clothes and passport, had gone missing from his home in Station Road, Quorn.
A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Matthews overcharged customers and duped householders into having unnecessary work done. One of his victims, an 89-year-old man, of Braunstone, Leicester, ended up paying £4,900 for aerial repairs and "shoddily carried out" labouring odd jobs worth £490.
Leicestershire County Council's trading standards department caught Matthews and his employee, Luke Busby, in a sting operation.
The department hired an actress to play the part of a vulnerable elderly occupant of a bungalow in Hospital Lane, Blaby, that was fitted out with microphones and 12 hidden cameras.
They filmed Busby misdiagnosing a simple aerial cable problem and wrongly recommending a new aerial, which was installed.
Both Busby and Matthews – who said his name was Gary – provided invoices bearing bogus names and addresses.
Matthews was convicted of four frauds, eight offences of engaging in unfair commercial practice and one of running fraudulent businesses, One Digital and Aerials Direct, between April 2011 and March last year.
He was acquitted of one count of unfair commercial practice.
He had denied the offences at an earlier hearing, but pleaded guilty to two additional counts of engaging in unfair trading practice by failing to inform customers of the seven-day cooling-off period required by law.
The case was adjourned until next Friday, when Matthews is likely to be sentenced in his absence.
Busby (26), of Leicester Road, Countesthorpe, who admitted fraud in connection with the sting operation, will also be sentenced.
In interview, Matthews blamed Busby for the offences.
Busby gave evidence for the prosecution against Matthews, saying he was not properly trained by his boss during seven months of employment and was only carrying out instructions.
John Hallissey, prosecuting, told the jury: "Matthews is a deceitful, dishonest trader of the very worst kind.
"The sort of trader who gives hard-working, upstanding businessmen a bad name.
"He uses a variety of names, installing aerials on roofs.
"He preys on the vulnerable and targets the elderly.
"Matthews wasn't in business genuinely to repair but aimed to con people to do work that didn't need doing and to overcharge."
His victims included a couple in their 70s, of Syston, in May 2011.
Again calling himself "Gary", Matthews said a new aerial was needed and allegedly refused to say how much it would cost until after he fitted it – charging £260.
"Had they been told the cost in advance, they wouldn't have had the work done and that's why he didn't tell them," said Mr Hallissey.
Another householder, of Roman Way, Syston, contacted the defendant, who, calling himself "Stuart", recommended and installed a signal booster that was not needed, charging £100, in March last year. They later got a refund.
Mr Hallissey said Matthews also issued five-year guarantees which were "utterly meaningless".
Matthews said in interviews read out in court that he could always be contacted by mobile phone, regardless of incorrect names and addresses.
The court heard Matthews, on occasions, purported to be a respectable and long-established aerial fitter, Gary Bainbridge, of Countesthorpe.
Mr Bainbridge told the jury he had no association with Matthews and was not happy his good reputation was being abused.
The Rogue Traders programme showed Matthews sneakily pour a can of drink over TV wall sockets and then tell the householder – an actress – there was a leak.
After the court hearing, county council trading standards officer Gary Connors said: "It was necessary and in the public interest to bring these proceedings.
"Not only was Matthews defrauding consumers, legitimate traders were suffering as a consequence.
"We felt our undercover surveillance, in April 2011, was proportionate to bring this man to justice."
