John Jason O’Brien (18), Thomas Kiely (19), and Desmond O’Reilly (23) would target the elderly, climbing onto rooftops, cause intentional damage, and then approach the homeowner to offer them “repairs”.
Other times, they would take money from their victims and abandon a job half way, and would even drive their victims to ATMs or banks to withdraw money.
When police raided their Perth home, over $65,000 (€45,000) in cash was found.
On passing sentence, District Court Judge Laurie Levy described the scam as a “sophisticated scheme to defraud and target elderly people”.
The men have received sentences of between 8 and 13 months each.