A ROGUE trader has been given more time to pay back part of an £800,000 haul he swindled from pensioners.

Mark Shepherd and Scott Jackson have already served jail sentences for targeting an elderly academic and a dementia sufferer in Oxford during a three-year scam.

At Oxford Crown Court yesterday, Shepherd, of The Beeches caravan site, in Old London Road, near Chipping Norton, asked for more time to repay £50,000.

The 46-year-old was told in October last year he would face 18 months in jail if the money was not found within three months, but sought an extension earlier this year.

Daren Samat, defending, said his client had agreed with his sister they would sell her house to raise the money, but the sale had run into problems.

He said: “The difficulty has been in selling the property because it has a structural problem with the roof. It was hoped the purchaser would repair it after buying the property, but now they want it to be done before.”

Judge Patrick Eccles gave Shepherd until May 7 to provide evidence that the sale was definitely taking place.

He also ordered him to pay £2,000 within 14 days “to show that he is serious about repaying this money”.

In March 2004, the two men told an 85-year-old dementia sufferer that one of her chimneys was tilting and some tiles needed replacing at her North Oxford home.

Over 15 months she paid them a total of £364,906 for work which should have cost just £30,000.

The following year, an 81-year-old retired Oxford University academic, who lived in Botley, forked out £506,880 for building work which was worth no more than £55,000.