Cowboy builder: Rogue trader who ripped off Edinburgh OAPs forced to sell his home

A cowboy builder who conned two pensioners out of tens of thousands of pounds has been forced to sell his family home to pay them back.

Rogue trader Adam McCallum, 47, carried out roofing work on the two elderly customers properties in Edinburgh but charged the pair well over the going rate for the work.

The conman duped an 84-year-old man into paying him £113,000 over a six month period despite only carrying out work on his three-bedroom bungalow worth £63,000.

He was also handed more than £98,000 by a 74-year-old woman after completing work on her home that was later valued at just over £60,000.

Crooked contractor McCallum was forced to sell his house.

Crooked contractor McCallum was snared when the woman’s bank became suspicious about the large payments coming out of her account and decided to call in the police to investigate.

The builder - who ran All Seasons Roofing - pleaded guilty to two charges of fraud when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in November 2019.

Sentence had been deferred for him to sell his home in the Lochend area of the capital in a bid to raise the funds to pay his victims back.

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McCallum returned to court and Sheriff Thomas Welsh QC was told the property had been sold and the two pensioners had received the money they had overpaid.

The sale history on the ESPC website states McCallum’s terraced property was sold for £255,000 in October this year.

Lawyer Euan Gosney, defending, told the court McCallum was living in a static caravan in Pumpherston, West Lothian, and is out of work and separated from his wife.

McCallum will be electronically tagged and must stay within his home address between the hours of 7pm and 6am for the next nine months.

McCallum admitted to fraudulently obtaining £35,083 from the 74-year-old woman and to obtaining £50,200 from the 84-year-old man between May 1, 2015 and June 12, 2017.

Previously prosecutor Heather Carmichael said McCallum had cold called at the 84-year-old victim’s home in thecapital “towards the end of 2016” and informed the man “there were loose slates on his roof”.

The OAP agreed for McCallum to check the roof and was told it needed new slates.

McCallum later said the chimney required repair and the whole property “was in need of complete re-harling”.

The victim agreed for the work to be carried out as he believed “McCallum to be a reputable tradesman”.

McCallum also told the man work was required to relay his garage roof, replace his home’s guttering and “suggested re-laying the mono block driveway and slabs in the front garden”.

The court heard the customer paid McCallum a total of £113,000 between December 14, 2016 and June 12 the following year.

Independent surveyors subsequently ruled “the value of works carried out was much less than the amounts [the man] had paid”.

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McCallum also carried out work on the home of a 74-year-old woman between June 2015 and February 2017 and was paid £98,345.

Staff at the woman’s bank “became concerned” about the bank transfers in February 2017 and contacted the police.

Two independent surveyors concluded the work carried out by McCallum “was of an acceptable standard” but “the value of works carried out was much less than the amounts she had paid”.

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