A dodgy trader who spent more than $135,000 on gambling and porn after cheating 89 victims out of their money has been jailed.
Lewis Blake, a window shutter installer, took deposits of nearly $80,000 from customers but never returned to their homes to complete the work.
The 43-year-old from Whitstable, Kent, was found to have spent more than $125,000 on gambling and more than $17,000 on adult websites, police said.
Blake’s offending, which took place between August 2020 and May 2021, was reported to Kent Police by several victims who set up a social media group to share their experiences.
He later told officers that he had underpriced himself and gambled with his customers’ money to fill the orders.
Canterbury Crown Court heard Blake, who was described by victims as ‘polite and well-presented’, had received deposits worth a total of $79,856 from 89 different victims.
The victims were happy enough to pay the fraudster half the cost of the shutters in advance.
However, Blake never returned to the properties to complete the work.
He gave his victims several excuses for not returning to complete the work, including the impact of the pandemic and problems with shipping the products from abroad.
It was later determined that Blake had ordered just fourteen studs between 2019 and 2022, instead gambling away his victims’ money on adult websites and betting.
After admitting fraud, he was jailed for 18 months and banned from being a company director for seven years.
Det Const Beth Brimmicombe-Wood, of Kent Police, added that Blake had told officers his gambling with the victims’ money was done with the completion of their shutters in mind.
She said: “Criminals like Lewis Blake give reputable traders a bad name when they betray the trust of their customers for their own personal benefit.
“After his arrest, he told us he had wrongly underpriced himself and tried to gamble away his customers’ money to fill orders.
“But even if that were true, it wasn’t his money to gamble with and that left many victims out of pocket.
“It is entirely right that he be sent to prison for the crimes he committed.”
