A ‘cynical and cruel’ rogue builder who left his victim unable to pay for his dental treatment won’t have to pay thousands in compensation.

Abey Smith, 51, conned a 70-year-old pensioner out of £113,000 over the course of almost a year.

Smith, of Orpington in Kent, denied fraud between April 2016 and March 2017 but was convicted by a jury and jailed for four-and-a-half years in June 2021.

He appeared yesterday at Maidstone Crown Court holding a copy of the bible, for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.

There his assets were said to total just £707, so that is all he was ordered to pay back to the victim.

The court was previously told how Smith – who has a criminal record of 30 previous offences including two similar frauds – had at first ‘perfectly properly’ cleared guttering for the pensioner at a cost of £45.

But then he started lying to the man, telling him the property in the village of Teynham, Kent, needed other repairs and hugely increased his prices.

He even painted over roof tiles to make it look like they had been replaced.

‘You persuaded him to part with his money when he felt he had little choice but to pay because he wanted to know that his house would be in good shape to give him satisfaction in retirement,’ said Judge David Griffith-Jones QC.

‘That retirement has been, on any view, substantially damaged.’

An expert had concluded the limited work Smith carried out was shoddy, and if completed to a satisfactory standard would have cost little more than £3,000.

The victim was left living in ‘straitened circumstances’, and was unable to afford dental treatment or car repairs.

In mitigation, the builder’s lawyer said his client had ‘a genuine religious revelation’ and had ‘seen the light’.

During sentencing, a testimonial from a pastor at Smith’s local church spoke ‘very highly’ of him and his ‘efforts to help others’.

But judge Griffith-Jones said it had a ‘lack of insight’ into the implications of the offence and called Smith’s offending ‘cynical, heartless and calculated’.

‘While it is possible for someone to see the light, you failed to accept responsibility for your actions in the face of compelling evidence,’ he added.

‘You have shown no remorse whatsoever.’

Smith must pay the £707 compensation to the victim within a month, or spend two months in prison.

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