Moment police smash into predatory couple's home after sickening crimes

A 'cold and calculating' husband and wife team who were part of a band of rogue traders have been jailed after defrauding elderly residents out of almost £400,000.

Police said after a sentencing hearing that the victims were 'made to feel unsafe in their own homes' and 'left in fear of what would happen if they didn't pay'.

Andrew Lovell, 43, Madeline Lovell, 41, and Kevin Brown, 61, held their victims 'to ransom', a court was told, while carrying out substandard work on homes that wasn't necessary.

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Police said the trio charged residents 'extortionate' prices - their victims felt 'powerless, frustrated and embarrassed'. Officers from Cheshire Police began investigating their operations in 2022, using the group's finances and communications to link them to their crimes.

And footage showed officers using a saw to cut through the door of married Andrew and Madeline Lovell's joint home in Coppice Green, Elton, Cheshire, during a raid when they were arrested. A safe was opened and a white van, displaying the words 'M and A Roofing' towed away.

The pair both pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and money laundering, with Andrew Lovell getting four years and six months in prison and Madeline Lovell two years and three months.

Kevin Brown, from Llys Ont Y Felin in Mold, pleaded guilty to the same offences and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Detectives from Cheshire Constabulary's Economic Crime Unit (ECU) began investigating reports of rogue traders operating in the Cheshire and Merseyside areas in 2022.

The defendants, said the force, would persuade their victims that work was required on their home, and in most