A Bromley plumber was found guilty of scamming a 78-year-old pensioner and “should have been sent to prison”.

Darren Leigh, who traded as DL Plumbing, was charged with two offences of fraud, unnecessary maintenance work, and charging VAT when not VAT registered.

Leigh denied the charges, but was found guilty in his absence at Bromley Magistrates’ Court in September last year.

Three attempts were made to overturn his conviction, but he was finally sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on November 26.

The pensioner had initially contacted Leigh over a problem with her toilet cistern in April 2012.

After attending her home, he informed her the water tank in the loft was leaking and needed replacing at a cost of £1,750 plus VAT.

She paid a total of £2,090.

Alarm bells were raised by the pensioner's daughter, who contacted Trading Standards over quality of work done by Leigh.

Bromley Council officers found the work to be “wholly unnecessary” and of poor standard.

They also discovered the original water tank still in the loft - with no sign of a leak.

However, Leigh was already known to Bromley Trading Standards, who prosecuted him for unfair trading offences in 2009 when he traded as 5 Star Plumbing.

He was also prosecuted by Kent Trading Standards in 2011 for the same behaviour, for which he received a suspended sentence.

The judge at Bromley sentenced Leigh to nine months imprisonment for each fraud, suspended for 18 months.

He also imposed a 12 month supervision order, a 'programme requirement' for 20 days on the Thinking Skills Programme, and 120 hours of unpaid work.

He was fined £100 for breach of his previous suspension order.

An application for compensation for the pensioner was refused, under the ground that Leigh was bankrupt.

Councillor Tim Stevens, executive member for public protection and safety, said: "Here is a man with a previous track record for defrauding consumers, he should have been sent to prison, especially as he committed this atrocious crime whilst serving an earlier suspended sentence.

"It’s our role to protect the public from this type of rogue trading and I would warn residents not to engage with this individual for property repairs."