A BURGLAR alarm salesman who preyed on elderly customers in York, North Yorkshire and elsewhere has been jailed for nine months.

Paul Rawson, 40, spent four hours at one woman's house before she agreed to buy an alarm from Anglo-African Monitored Security Ltd, of which he was a joint director, Leeds Crown Court heard.

On other occasions, he physically took customers to the bank so they could draw out money and give it to him there and then, said Deborah Sherwin prosecuting.

Rawson also falsely claimed to customers the Government or local authorities, including City of York Council, would give them grants as a means of persuading them they were buying alarms at a discount when they were in fact getting them at the normal price. Customers paid him up to £2,100 each.

He started using his lying techniques at a Teesside alarm company called Catch Monitored Security Ltd, run by director Martin West, in 2003 and continued his illegal methods even after North Yorkshire trading standards officers had interviewed him in connection with his offences with West's company.

Rawson, of St Leonards, Rotherham, pleaded guilty to six charges of making false statements, two when working for Catch Monitored Security Ltd and four with Anglo-African Monitored Security Ltd. He was jailed for nine months and banned from being a company director for two years.

His barrister, Graham Reeds, said Catch Monitored Security Ltd had a culture of cutting corners to achieve sales and Rawson had been desperate for work after a long period of unemployment.

West and Catch Monitored Security Ltd have each admitted a series of trading standards offences. Their cases were adjourned until January for a special hearing.

Victims included one York woman who gave Rawson a cheque for £1,000 in July last year after he told her she could get a £150 grant from the council. She later changed her mind and cancelled her order, but by October, 2003, her money had not been refunded.

Updated: 10:21 Tuesday, November 23, 2004