Linwood conman ordered to repay £7,000 to Renfrewshire gardening scam victims

Adam Crawford avoided a prison sentence when he appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court.

A Linwood conman who stole almost £7,000 has been ordered to pay it back to the Renfrewshire families he nicked it from.

Crook Adam Crawford, stole money from three Renfrewshire couples between January and June last year by pretending he would carry out landscaping work in their gardens – but instead pocketed their cash.

Crawford, of Asbury Court in Linwood, fraudulently pocketed £1,650 from one pair on January 31 last year.

Crawford said he would carry out landscaping at their home in Neuk Crescent in Houston and order materials on their behalf.

Paisley Sheriff Court yesterday heard how Crawford blocked the couple on a messaging app when they were forced to repeatedly ask him for updates about the planned work.

He failed to carry out any work at their home, telling social workers who prepared background reports on him that he used the money to set up a business and put it towards materials for other jobs.

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The 35-year-old then went on to steal another £1,650 from his second victims in February 2023.

Crawford repeated the same method and pretended to the couple he would carry out landscaping work at their Corsebar Drive home in Paisley but failed to do any work. When this couple asked for their money back, Crawford told them he “didn’t have the funds”.

And in March last year, conman Crawford brazenly stole £3,650 from a couple when he pretended he would carry out garden work at their Stranka Avenue home in Paisley.

The court heard that, when the couple told Crawford to cancel the job and return their money, he simply told them he could “cut labour costs”. Again, no materials ever turned up and no work was carried out.

Defence agent Ms Fulton told the court Crawford, who now works for a groundwork company, had said to her: “This is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

Ms Fulton added: “There is no denying the heinous nature of these charges and Mr Crawford does not shy away from that. He has expressed deep remorse and he wishes nothing more than to repay the victims.

“He did not set out to deceive these people. He had set up a business taking cash deposits and bad decisions led to cash flow problems. He bit off more than he could chew. He knows the families shouldn’t have suffered at the hands of his bad decisions.”

At a hearing last month, Sheriff Andrew Berry branded Crawford a “con artist” and ordered he save up £300 before returning to court. This was to prove he would comply with any monetary penalty – otherwise he would be facing a jail sentence.

Crawford did attend court with the £300 and so an alternative was imposed. Yesterday, Sheriff Morag Fraser ordered the father-of-three to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work within the community and for those hours to be completed within 18 months.

In addition, Crawford was ordered to repay the sums he stole from each family within the 18-month period.

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