Window fitter stole £3,000 in deposits

A window fitter has been found guilty of stealing more than £3,000 from people in the Black Country by taking deposits for work that was not carried out.

Paul Lane came up with a catalogue of excuses for failing to do the work, including that he had been stabbed or injured quad biking.

The stolen sums ranged from £20 to £650. Seven of the 18 victims were elderly.

A jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court sitting at the Waterfront in Brierley Hill, Dudley, found him guilty yesterday of 18 counts of theft between December 2005 and September 2008.

The unanimous verdict came after just one-and-a-half-hours of deliberations.

During the three-day trial Mark Jackson, prosecuting on behalf of Sandwell Council, said Lane would meet customers, offer to do work such as window replacement and conservatory roof repairs, take a deposit but then never show up to do it.

Lane, aged 46, who used to lived in West Bromwich but is now of Wolverhampton Street in Dudley, never denied taking the money.

He even said the 18 counts were just "the tip of the iceberg" and that at one point he owed more than £18,000 to 65 customers.

He told the court he always intended to pay his customers back, but ran into money troubles after splitting with his wife and was never able to get on top of the debt.

Lane traded under the names Elan Glazing and Paul Lane Window Repairs.

He will be sentenced at a later date.