TWO neighbours ripped off by a cold caller from Swindon offering to repair their drive have been awarded compensation.

Pensioners Richard Thistlewaite and Alan Wibberley were promised a first class job. But after an hour's rain their drive was a mess of brown puddles, and too sticky to walk on, a court heard.

Albert Webb, of Hay Lane Wroughton, called at their bungalows in Wrexham and offered to do the work there and then.

However, Wrexham's chief trading standards officer Michael Dean said Webb should not have done the job straight away. Instead he should have given notice and allowed his customers a seven-day cooling off period.

Webb, 48, failed to turn up in court but Wrexham magistrates in North Wales heard the case in his absence.

He was fined £500 and ordered to repay the £440 he charged for the job, as well as £60 prosecution costs.

Mr Dean said Webb flouted regulations that were put in place to protect people against cold callers offering repairs or other services.

"These people often appear out of the blue, take the money, do a poor job and go," he said. "Under the regulations now anyone who goes cold calling must give notice saying the householder has seven days to consider the contract."

He added: "We've had cases of elderly pensioners being told their chimney stack is going to fall and crush them in their beds unless they have work done and pay on the dot.

"In this case a man did a common drive between two semi-detached bungalows for two pensioners. He said he was using a new sealant perfect for the job. It turned out to be a rip-off."

Webb asked for £500 but the neighbours settled for £220 cash each and both went to their banks to get the money.

Webb finished in two hours, took the money and left.

The sealant makers said the material he had used was used to join layers of asphalt and could only be applied with heat or in warm weather not in the conditions Webb had been working in.

The court ordered Webb to pay the total £1,000 within 28 days.

Tamash Lal