A LAWN bowls “bad boy” and builder has been jailed for defrauding customers out of £130,000.
Danny Denison, 60, took cash from 18 victims on the promise of conservatories, loft conversions and extensions.
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They paid ten per cent deposits with Denison starting some jobs before proving elusive for months.
When customers refused to pay more, he withdrew workers and often never returned to complete the job.
Customers then had to fork out huge sums to put his shoddy work right, with some suffering panic attacks.
Meanwhile, Denison spent the money on his lifestyle — with £80,000 paid into gambling accounts, Bristol crown court heard.
Denison, of Kingsteignton, Devon, won the Bowls England men’s champion of champions title four times between 1985 and 2000.
He was once ranked No21 in the world but in 2015 got a 12-month ban from the sport after trashing his hotel room.
In 2018 he went to hospital with a broken leg, damaged ribs and black eye after being attacked by a cage fighter during a hotel row.
Denison was also convicted for fraud in 2007.
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This week, he was jailed for 43 months after previously pleading guilty to running a fraudulent business.
Judge William Hart told him: “We are talking about people who could ill afford to lose the money they have.
“They have to live with the misery your offending causes.
“It is not something peripheral, it’s something central to the victimisation your offending causes.”
Denison was also banned from working as a builder for ten years.
A hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act will decide what money — if any — can be retrieved.
Wendy Martin, from National Trading Standards, said after the verdict: “Today’s sentence is another reminder that this type of criminality will not go unpunished, and I hope it brings some semblance of justice to the victims.”
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