Two cowboy builders who conned twelve vulnerable victims out of more than £1.3 million — leaving homes unfinished, lives upended and one elderly man unable to return to his house before he died — have been jailed for a combined total of nearly 16 years.
Samuel O’Hanlon, 45, was sentenced to ten years in prison at Inner London Crown Court on Wednesday, with his apprentice Jack Sargeant, 29, receiving five years and nine months. Both men, from Ashford, were convicted following an eight-week trial in March of multiple counts of fraud and money laundering. They must each serve almost half their sentences before being considered for release on licence.
The scale of their offending stretched across three businesses and spanned years, with the pair swindling a total value of more than £2.4 million when fraud and money laundering are taken together. O’Hanlon was the driving force, demanding large sums upfront from customers before abandoning jobs, leaving properties in disrepair and returning to demand yet more money for work he claimed still needed doing.
Among those who came forward to describe the impact was Elizabeth Hennessey, 83, whose account laid bare the human cost behind the financial figures. She and her late husband Paul had hired O’Hanlon to build a kitchen extension so that Paul, whose health was deteriorating, could still access their garden. Instead, the couple were effectively blocked from the home they had owned for 40 years for more than a year, paying more than double the original £60,000 quote as O’Hanlon continued to insist further work was required. Paul died in January 2022 without ever returning home.
“We wanted this work done because my husband had said loud and clear: I just want to stay in my house and garden,” Mrs Hennessey told KentOnline. “But he died, and he never got back here. I’m certainly not saying O’Hanlon caused his death, but, as my daughter said, he ruined the last two years of Dad’s life.”
The convictions have prompted several victims to raise concerns that warning signs were missed and that authorities had failed to act swiftly enough. Court documents revealed that Trading Standards had issued warnings about O’Hanlon as far back as 2014 and 2015 — yet in the years that followed he continued operating, targeting twelve victims across multiple counties.
Detective Chief Inspector Helen Smithers said Kent Police had worked closely with Mrs Hennessey since 2021 before the case was transferred to Trading Standards. “Rogue traders are often well-practised and convincing in their scams, and anyone can become a victim of these sophisticated schemes,” she told KentOnline, adding that she hoped the outcome would bring Mrs Hennessey “some level of comfort.”
East Sussex County Council, which led the prosecution through its Trading Standards team, said it took reports of rogue traders “extremely seriously” and had successfully prosecuted many operating across East Sussex and surrounding counties. It added that Trading Standards cases were assigned on a case-by-case basis but that local authorities regularly took into account victims beyond their own boundaries.
