Face of Notts rogue roofer who fleeced thousands from elderly victims

Jimmy Dolan had committed the same crimes before

This is the face of rogue roofer Jimmy Dolan who fleeced elderly and vulnerable victims who lived alone in Nottinghamshire out of thousnds of pounds. Nottinghamshire Police has now released the custody image of the 38-year-old who was jailed for four years at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday, October 16.

The defendant would use aliases as part of his ruse and gained the trust of the mainly female women in their 80s and 90s, to part with their money for work that was either not done or was completed “to an unsatisfactory standard”.

Dolan, who has served time in prison for similar offences, would disappear with their money and on one occasion even fled from one lady’s home and jumped over a fence to escape with it. Jailing him for four years, Judge Michael Auty KC said: “This is a case where you chose to deliberately exploit the elderly and vulnerable for your own gain and you have done it before. This offending went on for just under a year, it was persistent and determined.

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“Your own counsel has described your offending as repugnant and he is entirely right. They are truly abhorrent crimes committed against people that should expect the protection of the courts. I have read victim impact statements from two of the cases which truly give a flavour of the misery, suffering and distress you inflicted on these elderly victims.

“The impact has had a seriously detrimental effect on them. The youngest of your victims was 63, two were 85, one was 87 and the eldest, from whom you took the most money, was 91.”

Sa lowne, prosecuting, said Dolan targeted the five victims between the summers of 2023 and 2024. He said in each case, he would knock on the doors of the people and tell them work needed doing on their roofs or ceilings.

The prosecutor said on one occasion he followed one woman into her home uninvited and left with the last £40 she had in her purse. And when one male victim found his bank card which showed a different name to the one the defendant gave him, he was able to pass it off as a mistake.

Mr Lowne said: “Overall, the MO (modus operandi or method of operation) was him targeting elderly and vulnerable victims who lived on their own, gain their trust so they would part with their money and then either do work to a completely unsatisfactory standard or, more often, not do the work at all. One victim, in her statement, said she felt he had completely betrayed her trust.

“In total, £18,682.69 was taken from the five victims with the eldest one having parted with £11,482.69.” Dolan, of Trinity Road, Retford, pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud. He has previous similar offences to his name which has seen him jailed before as well as convictions for burglary.

Steve Cobley, mitigating, said his client has five children with a previous partner and had moved to Nottinghamshre from Darlington, in the North East, to be with a new, supportive girlfriend,

He said: “He knows, given the seriousness of the distasteful and repugnant offence, which are aggravated by his antecedent history it is going to be a custodial sentence and not an insignificant one. He has, at least, had the decency to admit his guilt and spare those elderly victims from having to come to court.”