THE BOSS of a company laying driveways who fleeced elderly victims has been given three months to pay £1.5 million or face seven years in prison. Thomas Connors, aged 48, of Chiswell Green Lane, St Albans, had the biggest-ever confiscation order in Herts

THE BOSS of a company laying driveways who fleeced elderly victims has been given three months to pay £1.5 million or face seven years in prison.

Thomas Connors, aged 48, of Chiswell Green Lane, St Albans, had the biggest-ever confiscation order in Herts made against him at Luton Crown Court on Monday.

The judgement was made under the Proceeds of Crime Act after Connors was convicted of breaching the Trades Descriptions Act last March and was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment.

Investigations by Herts Police and Enfield Trading Standards showed that between February 2005 and February 2006, he targeted elderly people across the UK, cold calling and using pressure tactics to persuade people to give him work laying tarmac and paving. But it was often left unfinished and prices would escalate while customers did not have the paperwork to prove what they had paid for.

Now Connors must pay the full amount of the order in three months or face a seven-year sentence.

The £1.5 million will be split between the Government and Herts Police, the court service and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Detective Inspector Andy Theakston from the Economic Crime Unit said it was an excellent result as Connors carried out despicable crimes against the most vulnerable members of communities.

He added: "This has been a complicated and painstaking inquiry which would not have been successful but for the tenacity of the staff concerned".