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Daniel Cassar jailed for conning people out of deposits for gardening work that he never intended to do

A fraudster who peddled his gardening business through Facebook taking money from his victims with no intention to do the work was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday (October 3)

Daniel Cassar, 34, from Llandaff Road in Canton was trading through a company name called L and J's Landscaping and falsely went by the name Liam Frankfort.

Three of his victims contacted the company through Facebook to have work carried out to their garden and the fourth victim was Cassar's own landlord, who paid £5,980 for two minibuses which were never purchased.

The court heard that the offending took place between June and September 2018 and involved four complainants. Daniel Cassar took money from his victims up front, in the guise of buying goods and supplies for the work to be carried out but this was all a lie.

When interviewed by officers from the Shared Regulatory Service, Daniel Cassar admitted that he never bought any goods or supplies, never intended to do any of the work or buy the minibuses, as he spent all of the money to feed his gambling addiction.

The contract that was sent to his customers used incorrect company details, a false name and contained no cancellation rights.

In mitigation Defence Counsel, Heath Edwards, asked the court to take the defendant's early plea into consideration and that he had paid all the victims back the money that they were owed. He advised the court that in relation to an earlier sentence in January 2019 for similar offences, the defendant had carried out 189 hours of unpaid work out of the 200 hours set by the court and had undergone 12 days of rehabilitation requirements.

Heath Edwards advised the court that his client had been ‘trapped in a cycle of dishonesty' because he had a chronic gambling addiction.

In passing sentence Her Honour Judge Jones told the defendant that he has ‘lied, lied and lied again and had no intention of doing anything for these people.'

"I have weighed up the matters before me and you have multiple previous convictions and failed to comply with alternative sentences that have been imposed by the court. Given that you have failed to comply six times in the past, only an immediate custodial sentence will suffice"

Daniel Cassar admitted seven counts of fraud and four offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. He was sent to prison for 16 months and ordered to pay a £149 victim surcharge.

Cllr Michael Michael, Cabinet Member responsible for Shared Regulatory Services at Cardiff Council, said: "I believe justice has been served in this case, not only have the victims had the money that was stolen from them re-paid, but the immediate prison sentence sends a clear message to all unscrupulous traders out there, that the courts take these matters very seriously."