A DOOR-TO-DOOR salesman who travelled Oxfordshire passing off cheap seafood to elderly people as expensive fish has been jailed.

Craig Henderson was sentenced to 12 months in prison today after admitting 30 charges of fraud and selling food that was not labelled properly.

The conman drove around north Oxfordshire knocking on doors claiming to be selling prime cuts of sea bass, smoked haddock, cod, salmon, craster kippers, plaice and Dover sole.

Instead the 37-year-old was handing over cheap coley, also known as pollack, and pocketed about £2,000 from his elderly victims.

Judge Roger Dutton jailed Henderson at Chester Crown Court and banned him from driving for the next two years, adding he did not want him driving door-to-door when he left jail.

Judge Dutton added: “You are a dishonest chap and clearly targeting older people and their hard earned money.

“You’ve continued for six years to sell fish without regard to legislation or whether it is dishonest, and you did not need to do what you did, you just wanted money.

“It comes to a stage where you show no interest in changing your ways so the court must protect people.

“You are wholly unscrupulous and show complete disregard for the legislation.”

Henderson also pleaded guilty to a further four counts of fraud and selling food that was not labelled properly in the Chester area.

Henderson admitted visiting a house in Main Road, Long Hanborough, in January last year and selling 46 packs of fish for £386 claiming they were sea bass and smoked cod when they were coley.

On March 28 last year he returned to Oxfordshire and struck four times, pocketing over £1,200.

First he collected £396 from a resident in Cropredy Lane, Williamscote, selling 32 packs of wrongly labelled fish.

Later in the day he sold 32 packs of coley which were labelled smoked haddock, salmon and cod to a resident in Main Street, Great Bourton. Then Henderson visited a house in Red Lion Street, Cropredy, and sold 60 packs of sea bass, craster kippers, smoked haddock and plaice when they were coley, and was paid £390.

Finally he was paid £350 for selling 32 packs of coley which he was passing off as smoked haddock, salmon, cod and Dover sole, at a house in Creampot Lane, in Cropredy.

Henderson, of Chester-le-Street, County Durham, admitted 26 charges of fraud and deception at Banbury Magistrates’ Court earlier this year and the case was transferred to Chester for sentence.

Martin Woodley, of Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standard’s doorstep crime unit, said: “We are really pleased with the result.

“This protects people in Oxfordshire from unscrupulous fish dealers.

“If anyone is suspicious of a doorstep trader, contact us immediately.”

Anyone with information on doorstep crime should contact trading standards on 0845 051 0845 or police on 08458 505505.