A TRADESMAN seeking to mend his ways after being jailed for a mean fraud has been back in trouble for flouting a strict court order.

Ralph Brook, 49, was given a 43-month jail term in November 2021, after he admitted three fraud charges.

Brook was caught on a covertly-installed camera targeting a 96-year-old dementia sufferer living alone in Kendal having fleeced him of more than £5,000.

As part of his punishment, Brook was ordered to follow the terms of a 10-year criminal behaviour order (CBO) aimed at halting further offending and protecting the public.

He was banned from approaching any householders in England and Wales and offering to carry out work on their homes; and from working at any dwelling other than his own.

A copy of the CBO was sent to Brook at Durham Prison.

The dad-of-two of Brough, near Kirkby Stephen, left custody in August and moved to Carlisle.

City magistrates heard that police were alerted by a bank on Wednesday to a “suspicious transaction” as someone tried to pay heavily-convicted Brook £5,000 for building work at his home.

Police went to that Carlisle address. “They saw this defendant (Brook) carrying out building work with tools scattered about,” said prosecutor Andy Travis.

Initially tasked with a small job, Brook, it emerged, had then been asked by the householder to fit a new bathroom and radiators.

Following his prison release, he had been helped by the probation service to obtain qualifications and advertise his services as an experienced heating and plumbing engineer.

Bur crucially, the court heard, an administrative error meant the probation service had no record of the court-imposed CBO on their system.

Defence lawyer John Greenwood said: “It is accepted the order was made but the terms didn’t register (with Brook).”

There was no suggestion of any concerns or fraud with the Carlisle job.

Probation were not seeking Brook’s return to prison despite the breach. “He has worked hard,” said Mr Greenwood, “to get his life back on track. It is purely and simply that he hasn’t stuck to the wording of the CBO.”

Magistrates committed the case for sentence to Carlisle Crown Court on March 31 and in the meantime granted Brook, of Tullie Street, bail.