Window Cleaner Heads To Jail After Gross Breach Of Trust

Sean Pinkney was sentenced to 20 weeks behind bars for posting a sexually explicit photo on Facebook of a former partner 'to humiliate her'.

Jealous ex jailed for posting revenge porn on Facebook to 'humiliate' former girlfriend: Caged for five months, Sean Pinkney, 44, is the first in Greater Manchester to be jailed for the lewd act which was seen online by a mother at the victim's child's school

A jealous man has been jailed after posting a ‘sexually explicit’ picture of an ex-girlfriend online in an act of revenge. Sean Pinkney, 44, is the first in Greater Manchester to be sentenced for such an offence. He posted the picture on Facebook and left it there for four hours in a bid to humiliate a former partner, a court heard.

It was only when the victim went to pick up her children from school the following day that another mother told her the picture had been posted online. The mortified victim was ‘quite humiliated and very upset’ and immediately contacted police, who arrested Pinkney. Window cleaner Pinkney has now been locked up for 20 weeks by a district magistrate who described his actions as ‘a gross breach of trust’.

Window cleaner, Sean Pinkney.

The magistrate said the defendant posted the picture ‘solely to humiliate’ the victim and also imposed a restraining order on Pinkney. He said: “I can’t think of a more severe way this could be done. “Four hours in internet terms is a lifetime. A few seconds is a short period of time, four hours certainly is not. “It’s clear other people have viewed this image. Another mother at the school pointed it out.”

Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court heard that Pinkney and the victim had split up. On July 14, Pinkney sent the victim several phone messages which included sexually explicit pictures of her which she had allowed him to take during their relationship. When she went to collect her children from school the following day, one of the mothers told her the images were on Facebook, the court heard.

Pinkney admitted the offence during police interview and told officers he had posted the image to ‘humiliate’ his former partner as he believed she had sent a topless picture of herself to another man. Pinkney, of Dorning Road in Swinton, pleaded guilty to disclosing a private sexual photograph with intent to cause distress.

Sean Pinkney

Nnamdi Inegbu, defending, said Pinkney was not aware this was a criminal offence until it was pointed out to him at the police station. He said the dad had acted out of jealousy when he saw a picture of the victim showing her body to another man.

Mr Inegbu said Pinkney posted just one picture of the victim to Facebook and had intended to remove it after four hours. He said: “Once he posted it other people on the site asked to share and it snowballed.”

Mr Inegbu said the victim had ‘cheated’ on Pinkney and by sending the picture he had hoped to put some closure on the relationship. He added: “He recognises the emotional distress he has caused.”

Another Illegal Window Cleaner Gets Jail

Under surveillance: Thomas Kenny claimed his back complaint was a disability... but was caught on camera lifting a ladder. Thomas Kenny claimed his back complaint was so bad he couldn't walk. But he was caught on camera carrying a ladder and lifting a tyre from his car. The 52-year-old had been jailed for a separate case of benefit fraud in 2009

That will never wash! Benefits cheat who claimed £33,000 by pretending he had to use a wheelchair caught cleaning windows. A cheat who pretended he needed to use a wheelchair so he could claim benefits has been jailed after investigators caught working as a window cleaner. Thomas Kenny claimed more than £33,000 in incapacity benefit and disability living allowance over a five-year period. The 52-year-old - who had been jailed back in 2009 for a different case of benefit fraud - was emotionless as he was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to eight months in prison. The father-of-two was caught on surveillance by the Department for Work and Pensions carrying a ladder and taking a tyre out of the boot of his car.

Grey-haired Kenny was charged with failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of a change in circumstances when he started work as a window cleaner in 2007, having claimed incapacity benefits since 1997 for a bad back. He was also charged with fraudulently claiming Disability Living Allowance (DLA) from April 2008 until his arrest last September. He pleaded guilty to both charges at Liverpool Magistrates Court in March. The 'serial fraudster' claimed £11,554.30 of DLA from April 2008 until September 2011. He also fraudulently claimed £22,129.50 of incapacity benefits from June 2007 to August 2011. He fraudulently claimed a total of £33,683.80.

Bootle-born Kenny claimed on his DLA application form that he used a walking stick, and sometimes used a wheelchair. He also claimed that he could not wash or dry himself, needed help climbing the stairs, and that it took him three to four minutes to walk five metres, but had been working as a window cleaner since 2007. Kenny claimed he only took on the window cleaning work from his father, who had suffered a fall in 2007 which resulted in a brain injury. An earlier sentencing date was adjourned last month as Kenny’s father died while he was in court. Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said: 'He (Kenny) has been in receipt of incapacity benefits since 1997 and was unfit for work. 'It was not fraudulent from the outset, but there was a failure to notify the DWP of the change in circumstances. 'In more recent times he was working as a self-employed window cleaner.' Kenny was also jailed for four months in 2009 for failing to notify the DWP of his wife’s occupational pension, after claiming income support for the couple since 2002.

Only a quarter of that sentence was served, and it did not deter Kenny, who continued to receive DLA and incapacity benefits following his release. David Birrell, defending, said: 'By explanation and not excuse, the window cleaning round Mr Kenny carried out had been his father’s round. 'His father suffered an accident when he fell from a ladder in 2007 and suffered what would end up as a fatal brain injury.' Mr Kenny was asked to step in by his mother and he said he felt obliged to do so. He is 52, married, with two children. His daughter sits in court today, and his family are devastated. 'He is a man who works and volunteers driving disabled children around - there is good in him.' Judge Mark Brown, sentencing, said: 'Mr Kenny, you said it took you several minutes to walk a short distance and needed a walking stick and needed help with personal issues.

Heavy load: In one image, Kenny is seen lifting a tyre from the boot of his car.

Easy does it: Far from being incapacitated, Kenny lifts the ladder on to the roof of his car with ease.

'There was significant dishonesty here and your position is considerably aggravated by the fact that in 2009 you were sentenced to four months in prison for making false statements to obtain benefits over the course of five-and-a-half years. 'Following your release from prison, you continued to claim incapacity benefits and DLA and did so fraudulently. 'It is clear to me that you are something of a serial fraudster. You are a repeat offender when it comes to duping the state. 'It has been said time and time again that this country cannot afford to pay out these kind of monies. 'Money that could be put into health care and social services. It could be used to support people, not put into your back pocket.' Kenny was sentenced to eight months in prison, and waved to his daughter, who burst into tears as he was led from the dock.

Window Cleaning Vice President Gets 10 Years

PITTSBURGH — A former executive of a western Pennsylvania window company has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for unemployment compensation fraud, and other rip-offs. Forty-six-year-old Lacy Tilley, of Richland Township, was sentenced Friday after telling a federal judge in Pittsburgh his life story, including a past cocaine conviction and an 87-month prison sentence he's currently serving for gun possession as a felon. Friday's sentence will run concurrent to the gun term, meaning he'll be in prison until 2020, minus good time. Tilley ripped off the state unemployment system by having his girlfriend and several other associates illegally collect $39,000 in benefits while they still had jobs. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says Tilley also stole $305,000 from Penn Window Co. while its vice president, and cheated a business landlord out of $123,000 in a bid-rigging scheme.

Richland man given 9-year sentence for unemployment fraud: Typically, when defendants are asked to speak at their sentencing hearings, they apologize quickly and then stop talking. Lacy Tilley, 46, of Richland, decided instead today to tell his life story before U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti sentenced him to nine years and two months in prison for ripping off his employer, clients, employees and the state unemployment compensation system.

Mr. Tilley, formerly vice president of Penn Window Co., is "a person who has been blessed with many attributes that would've made you quite successful if you'd focused on doing things in a proper manner," said Judge Conti. "You have a drive within you to succeed, but you've trampled over a lot of people whose lives are devastated."

Those people include his girlfriend and several ex-associates, who were convinced by him to collect unemployment while working, defrauding the state of $39,387 and as a result being indicted individually; Coraopolis-based Penn Window, from which he took $305,517; and the owners of a Cleveland office building who incurred losses of $123,000 when he arranged to have a bid rigged in favor of one of his companies.

Mr. Tilley told the judge that as a young man he was a Marine, who took a bad conduct discharge and got off to a rough start on civilian life with a job as a bouncer at a bar. "I was a drunken ex-Marine, and I sold coke," he said. He did time for cocaine, got out, and spent 15 years working hard, primarily for Penn Window. He worked so hard, he lost two wives, and drifted into and out of drug abuse. "Cocaine kept me awake, and I could work late hours," he said. "I [had] 80 employees, I've got four offices, 14 trucks," and logistical headaches, he said.

Then he met the love of his life, Claudelle McMahill. He was good to her, but roped her into his schemes, too, convincing her, and others, to cheat the unemployment system. Concocting that scheme, he said, "had to be the dumbest moment of my life." Ms. McMahill was sentenced to 20 months in prison for her role in his crimes. "I took advantage of people in business," he continued, admitting to ripping off One Cleveland Center through bid-rigging. "What did I gain? ... I lived high on the hog for several years."

He said he has suffered enough, even missing his mother's death and losing Ms. McMahill, and should be allowed to "get out there and pay these [victims of his crimes] back" by working for a living. "I haven't seen an iota of remorse from Mr. Tilley, and I've been dealing with him for five years now," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan T. Conway. Mr. Tilley was first indicted in 2006, and has spent much of the time since pointing fingers at others. He also was caught with guns, which is illegal for a felon, and in 2008 was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison for that.

His nine-year sentence today, for 34 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, mail fraud and conspiracy, will run concurrently with the remainder of the gun sentence, meaning he can expect to get out by 2020. He must also join some of his co-conspirators in paying restitution, which totals around $507,000.

 Richland man sentenced to 9 years, 2 months in prison for fraud: A Richland man’s marathon attempt to prove he shouldn’t spend additional time in prison ended today when a federal judge sentenced him to nine years and two months in prison on three fraud cases. Lacey Tilley, 46, had argued in court documents that his sentence should run concurrent with — and end at the same time as — the sentence he’s already serving on a firearm charge. Tilley has been in Allegheny County since July 2007 after he was arrested in Florida for skipping bail on the fraud and firearm charges.

U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti agreed to make the fraud sentence run concurrent with the firearms sentence but the nine years and two months is more time then he has left to serve for his December 2007 jury conviction of being a felon in possession of firearm. In the first fraud case, a federal jury in November 2008 convicted Tilley of buying a company that provides janitorial services and telling his employees to file fraudulent unemployment claims. He then included those unemployment benefits as part of their salaries. The jury convicted him on one count of conspiracy and 31 counts of mail fraud.

In the other two fraud cases, Tilley pleaded guilty in 2009 to one count of mail fraud for embezzling more than $300,000 from his former employer, Penn Window Cleaning Company, and one count of wire fraud connected to submitting false loan documents to obtain a mortgage. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Conway said the year and nine months spent on hearings and motions between Tilley’s guilty plea and sentencing may be a record for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Conway confirmed the judge’s order means that the time Tilley already has served won’t be credited to his fraud sentence. Conti also sentenced Tilley to three years of probation.