The fall of Frank Tomney sur.

Trading Standards investigated him for 5 years, Lancashire and Manchester police constabularies launched a several thousand pound operation in his criminal syndicate, but it was a YouTube video that proved the final nail in the Frank Tomney case.

Frank Tomney was convicted earlier this year on 51 counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and cheating the public revenue. Tomney’s victims were normally elderly and vulnerable, whom he conned out of thousands of pounds, promising house and driveway repairs but never delivering.

The Tomney Failmy (picture:press association)

Nephew of Frank Tomney, Brian Tomney, 29, of Salford, tricked a 90-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s in to selling him her house, worth £60,000 for a mere £17,000. He claimed he would let the pensioner live in the house until she died, but callously cut the water and electricity off within weeks.

In another case a Blackpool pensioner was intimidated in to paying £31,000 for shoddy work the Tomneys had done on her home.

Tomney and his criminal gang’s crime spree came to an end when his nephew, who was working for him at the time, released a video of the group charging an elderly couple from Stockport £800 to seal their driveway, using nothing but a bottle of diluted milk.

It was the video that brought the case to the attention of the public and media, but that is only half the story of how the Tomney family were brought to justice. 

Flycatcher 

In 2006 Lancashire Trading Standards began receiving reports of shoddy workmanship and incomplete work being done by a group of doorstop sales men. The group, sometimes 5 strong, would invariably target older people and used intimidation to convince them to let them do work on their house.

Lee Ormandy lead the case against the Tomney crime syndicate, in an operation called ‘flycatcher’.  The operation started out small, a simple investigation in to the work of a band of rouge traders. 

Lea said : ‘People often think that if you are stupid enough to fall for this kind of crime then you deserve everything you get, that is not the case, these are vulnerable people’ later adding ‘I want to make it clear, if you commit this kind of crime, you will go to jail.’

Flycatcher II

Although Flycatcher I started out small it quickly grew. A few months into the operation Lea’s team joined forces with Lancashire, Hertfordshire  and Manchester police when it became clear that the same Frank Tomney that Trading Standards were investigating for doorstep crime, was the same Frank Tomney the police were investigating for a string of vehicle offences including theft and cloning.

Combining the joint forces of Trading Standards, the Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Hertfordshire Police departments; the Serious Organised Crime Unit operation ‘Flycatcher II’ was born.

‘Flycatcher II’ tracked the operation of the Tomney family and identified the leaders of the criminal organisation as Frank Tomney senior and his two sons Frank Tomney Jr. and Thomas Tomney. The three men organised over 51 doorstep crimes in all areas of the northwest, many of which cost over a £1000 each.

Preston Crown Court found that the three men gained over £1,370,000 from charging extortionate prices for shoddy and often dangerous work. 

A police raid on the three mens' Dorset Avenue home in Cleveleys found large sums of stashed money.  Frank Tomney jnr. stashed £17,000 in a designer shoe box. Police also found over £3,000 cash belonging Frank Tomney Snr. and £450 belonging Thomas Tomney. 

 

Frank Tomney Jnr's stashed cash (picture: Blackpool Gazette)

The Tomney family also stored £370,000 of their ill-gotten-gains in safety deposit boxes in the names of Frank Tomney Snr. and Thomas Tomney.  

It is thought that the Tomneys kept the money hidden to avoid suspicion from both the police and the Tax-man.

Under The Proceeds of Crime Act the Tomney family have been ordered to pay back almost £1,000,000 to compensate their victims. 

Frank Snr. has since been jailed for 5 and a half years, for masterminding the plot to commit fraud and by misrepresentation and cheating the public revenue.

Frank Tomney Jnr. and Thomas Tomney have been jailed for 5 years and 4 years respectively for the same crime.

What Is Being Done?

Lee Ormandy from Trading Standards stressed that there are measures being taken to crack down on this sort of crime.

Trading Standards believe that prevention and education are the best tools for combating doorstep crime, which can include fraudulent workers, like the Tomneys, but also mail scams and distraction burglary.

Trading Standards in conjunction with Lancashire police hold regular events and talks to raise awareness of the problem, and spread leaflets and posters through problem areas.

 

A selection of leaflets given out by Trading Standards.

The map of England below shows the areas most at risk from doorstep crime. This comes in the form of distraction burglaries, fraudulent workmanship or mail scams.

Click on the tabs to see how many offences of doorstep crime there are in the area each year.

Red - high
Yellow - moderate
Green - low

View areas worst effected by doorstep crime in a larger map

no cold-calling zone’, meaning that it is prohibited to knock on somebody’s door in an attempt to get work.

‘No cold-calling zones’ have a trading standards team working for them, under ‘Operation Liberal’ they send out civil advice officers that check in with vulnerable home-owners, and have a rapid response team that will deal with any suspicious cold-caller immediately.  

 

A typical sticker seen a 'no cold-calling zone'

Lancashire has proportionately more ‘no cold-calling zones’ than anywhere else in the country, and has seen doorstep crime fall significantly over the last few years.

Trading Standards in Lancashire also provide a list of approved traders, under a ‘safe trade scheme’ at their website here, which provides the contact details of traders that have been fully verified by Trading Standards. They advise people not to use doorstep traders, but instead use there verified workers.

Trading Standards gets most of its information from the community, they ask that if anybody knows any information on doorstep crime they contact Crime Stoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or go to their website.

by Charlie Craven.