Michael Rylands, a builder from Sandwich, Kent, conned a pre-school out of thousands of pounds by claiming he couldn't finish their playground because he was receiving cancer treatment. He admitted seven fraud offences and was sentenced to 22 months in prison at Canterbury Crown Court.
Pre-school playground scam
Rylands offered to install a climbing frame at a pre-school in east Kent at a discounted rate. He was paid £6,000 upfront and cleared a small area of the site but never completed the job. The climbing frame he claimed he had ordered never arrived. When confronted, he told pre-school staff he was undergoing cancer treatment and couldn't finish the work.
Other victims
Another builder hired Rylands to fit windows as part of an office renovation, paying him £3,000. The windows were never delivered or installed. Rylands claimed they had been stolen. In July 2020, a woman paid him £2,000 for a bathroom renovation. After receiving an anonymous email warning about his offending, she challenged him and asked for her money back. Rylands lied, saying his bank account had been frozen.
A victim reported a similar experience for an ensuite bathroom, with lost funds and incomplete work. They also noticed their own tools and cash had gone missing from the property. Rylands also kept hundreds of pounds after advertising a laptop for sale online. When the buyer tried to collect it, Rylands claimed he had been admitted to hospital and would post it instead. The laptop never arrived, and he never returned the £450 paid, blaming postal services and his bank.
Perverting the course of justice
In November 2022, while a defendant in a different fraud case, Rylands tried to stop the trial by lying about hospital appointments for cancer treatment. Checks at the hospital revealed no record of him on the patient database. He was subsequently charged with perverting the course of justice.
DC Benjamin Deegan said: 'Our investigation uncovered a trail of unhappy people who had put their trust in Rylands and ended up out of pocket. He seemed to show little remorse for his actions, and thought that claiming he would cancer would provide him with a get-out-of-jail-free card. He had a flagrant disregard for people and property and I am pleased we were able to bring him to court to face justice.'
