The director of a Suffolk mobility furniture company who left elderly and disabled customers £80,000 out of pocket has been jailed for fraudulent trading.

David Waters, 71, of Manwick Road, Felixstowe, and his company Anchor Mobility Limited had denied a string of unfair trading offences brought following the investigation by Suffolk Trading Standards.

A Suffolk Trading Standards investigation speaking to Anchor Mobility customers from across the country.

More than 20 customers paid Waters, who was sole director of Anchor Mobility Ltd, for furniture including reclining chairs, sofas and beds they never received.

During a three-week trial in October, Waters denied fraudulent trading by taking payment without delivering goods, pressurising customers to make purchases, and failing to issue refunds between October 2016 and August 2017.

Waters and Anchor Mobility denied engaging in an unfair commercial practice which contravened requirements of professional diligence between October 2016 and August 2017.

The company and Waters also denied 13 offences of being engaged in misleading commercial practices by failing to fulfil representations that furniture would be delivered to customers within an agreed time period.

The jury found Waters and the company guilty by unanimous verdicts.

On Thursday, he was sentenced to 32 months' custody, made the subject of a criminal behaviour order and banned from being a company director for 10 years.

Anchor Mobility was fined £1,000 for each count of unfair commercial practice.

A confiscation hearing will address the matter of compensation in the new year.