A money launderer has been jailed after a victim from Stevenage spoke out.

Ndayishimye Shabani, from Enfield, was the director of Protek Property Solutions Ltd, and was employed by the Stevenage resident to repair their leaking roof in March 2022.

Initially, Protek agreed a price of £1,600 for the minor repairs, but they later claimed that the roof was in a worse state than first thought and it would cost £20,000 to repair.

A price of £18,000 was agreed with the resident, with £15,500 paid in instalments directly into Shabani's personal bank account and the rest to be paid upon completion.

The resident, who thought the price excessive, complained to Hertfordshire Trading Standards.

Their investigation found that the work was not necessary, and the traders had been falsely claiming membership of CheckATrade.

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Trading Standards found that Shabani had used similar tactics on a number of occasions in and around London, and provided evidence that a total of £192,750 had been fraudulently passing through Shabani's account from five victims of three companies.

They worked to secure the victims refunds of around £220,000, including sums which had not passed through Shabani's account, and restrained the remaining £29,000 in Shabani's account.

Trading Standards have now applied for the restrained money to be returned to the victims, to compensate those who provided evidence and ensure that Shabani won't benefit from his crimes.

Appearing before St Albans Crown Court on February 8, Shabani was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment.

He had pleaded guilty to three offences of money laundering amounting to more than £190,000 on a previous appearance before the court on December 1.

Morris Bright, executive member for public health and community safety at Hertfordshire County Council, said: “I’m pleased that our Trading Standards teams have brought Shabani to justice and that the money restrained is being returned to its rightful owners.

“I would encourage members of the public to remain vigilant to this type of fraud. If you do require repairs to your home or garden please always use those registered with the Which? Trusted Trader scheme.”