'Con trick killed by caring cousin'

Gary Seabrook, a self-employed plumber working through a firm called First Call Direct, of Ashford in Kent, pleaded guilty at Eastbourne Magistrates' Court to six charges of deception.

Among the charges was obtaining 5,255 for "replacing" a Bexhill spinster's blocked drain. The court was to hear that the drain was cleared quite simply in July 2002 - but never replaced.

The case was brought by East Sussex County Trading Standards department. Seabrook is due before the magistrates again on Thursday, March 4, for sentence.

His victim was caring Bexhillian Muriel Burbidge, known to a wide circle of friends as Wendy.

Miss Burbidge, formerly of Barrack Road, had spent most of her working life as a nurse at Bexhill Hospital and was a popular member of the congregation at St Peter's Church.

She died last September, aged 73. She will be remembered in the town for her pleasant manner and her ever-present smile. But that happy smile was taken from her when she realised that she had been the victim of a cruel deception.

The first Wendy's cousin, Brenda Soanes, knew of her troubles was when Wendy phoned her at her home at Walcott in Norfolk in great distress.

She told the Observer: "She'd had a blocked toilet. Naturally, she wanted to get it done in a hurry. She rang her usual plumber but he happened to be on holiday.

"She looked in Yellow Pages and found this firm.

"This chap came and looked at it. He said he had to dig it up and put in a new pipe. He told her a lot of lies in other words. He charged her over 5,000. He said he needed it 'up front.'

"She said 'I will go to my bank.' He said 'I'll take you down to the bank.'

"He was at her home for two days. But he only worked for two hours on one day and four hours the next - and he never dug up anything. He did a temporary job and charged her all this money.

"She rang me. She was desperate. She asked me what to do. I suggested she get in touch with the Citizens' Advice Bureau. She contacted her solicitor and they contacted Trading Standards. They managed to trace this man and its been going on ever since - one and a half years.

"She was 73. The outcome of it was that she died. She hadn't been well but I don't think the worry of this helped her. I think it killed her. It preyed on her mind to think that she had been tricked."