Melksham Gardener Pleads Guilty to Fraud

 Melksham gardener Robert Gregory stole more than £16,000

from his victim, 68-year-old Joan Travis who suffered a brain tumour. He took

advantage of Mrs Travis’s ill health and claimed for work he had nit completed

at a rate of £12.50 an hour.

Gregory avoided prison, being sentenced to a 12 month jail

term suspended for a year, 300 hours of community service and was ordered to

repay pay £16,375 to Mrs Travis within three months or face a nine month jail

term. Judge Euan Ambrose passed sentence, saying that Gregory avoided jail as

he pleaded guilty to all for charges of fraud against him and was the primary

carer for his wife, who is in her eighties and suffering from osteoporosis.

There is uncertainty as to how Gregory is going to pay back

the money as he is currently in debt to £15,000 on credit cards and various

loans. He has been declared bankrupt in the past, and had been working for two

years for Mrs Travis before her neighbours became suspicious of him and called

in the police. His solicitor, Mark Ruffell, said that Gregory had not set out

meaning to cheat her but didn’t stop her when she became “over generous” as her

health deteriorated.