THREE men and a woman appeared in court accused of a defrauding older people in the Chester area.

Kevin Sweeney, 36, of Liverpool, and Neil Andrew Jones, 36, of Dibbons Hey, Spital, appeared at city magistrates accused of fraudulent trading, fraudulent trading as 1st Choice Garage Doors and Home Improvements Ltd and acquiring criminal property.

The latter charge relates to £37,785 and £9,750 allegedly paid into Sweeney and Jones’s bank accounts respectively.

Paul Regrette Williams, 48, of Grasville Road, Tranmere, is accused of fraud by intending to make a gain of £14,875 by claiming a cheque was genuine.

He is also alleged to have acquired criminal property, namely £3,250 paid into his bank account.

Winischa Bateman, living at the same address, appeared in court accused of acquiring criminal property.

None of the defendants entered a plea.

Ian Moore, prosecuting on behalf of Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Trading Standards department, said the case had been jointly investigated with Cheshire Constabulary. He said it involved cold-calls to the homes of elderly members of the public.

Sweeney and Jones were the directors of the company, Williams was its sales representative while Bateman was Williams’s stepdaughter.

The prosecutor alleged Winifred Owen, 83, of Boughton, discovered a cheque had been stolen from her cheque book after noticing £14,875 missing from her bank account.

Beatrice Price, 82, had worked carried out by First Choice with 14 cheques presented to her account totalling £57,375 but Mrs Price said she only signed three of them. An independent surveyor claimed the value of the work was about £1,359.

Mr Moore claimed Peter Grant, a retired GP, was invoiced for work on two properties totalling £235,000 which an independent surveyor valued at about £66,000.

The case will return to magistrates on October 21 for committal to Crown Court.