Jailed: 'Gardener' who made threats in Telford door-to-door calls
A traveller who went door to door in Telford and "browbeat" vulnerable people into paying him to work on their gardens has been jailed.
Arthur Watton made "unpleasant" threats when his customers expressed their displeasure at his work and refused to pay him, Shrewsbury Crown Court was told.
The 39-year-old, of no fixed abode, was made the subject of an anti-social behaviour order nearly eight years ago that banned him from cold calling at people's doors and offering to carry out work for them.
But he breached the order twice in one day in May last year at two different homes in Wellington, Telford, the court heard.
Mr Timothy Sapwell, prosecuting, said on May 28 last year Watton knocked on the door of Caroline Solon.
"She had two daughters, one of whom was very severely disabled," the prosecutor said.
"They agreed a price of £80 to cut back all the bushes and hedges, cut the grass and remove the rubbish.
"He said the rubbish had been taken away in a van but it had been put in her wheelie bin. Not all of it had been removed.
"The bush that had been cut was on top of her roof. The grass had not been cut.
"She offered to pay him £40 at which point he threatened to put all the rubbish on her front lawn, as a result of that she agreed to pay £60.
"The defendant left but soon returned, saying his boss wasn't happy. The victim said he was very agitated.
"He only left after her daughter said she would be phoning the police."
Mr Sapwell said Watton also knocked on the door of ambulance driver James Hayward and agreed a fee of £50 to "do the grass".
The prosecutor said: "The defendant then proceeded to lie on his front and pull the grass up with his bare hands.
"The victim told him to stop. He said he wasn't paying, at which point the defendant got angry.
"He said 'I am a gypsy, you don't mess with the gypsies. There are 30 of us down the road'. That was a clear threat."
The court heard Watton was arrested by police and picked out of an identification parade by both victims.
Watton pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching an ASBO at court yesterday. He was jailed for nine months.
Miss Alison Whalley, for Watton, said she could only assume the offences were financially motivated.
Sentencing Watton, Judge Jim Tindal said: "You preyed on vulnerable people and made unpleasant threats to them.
"You approached people whose gardens were a mess and browbeat them into paying you to do work for them."
