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A notorious Alberta home renovator who targets the elderly and is known for taking money up front and not completing the work was handed a six-month jail term this week.

Christopher Wright, 43, was also ordered Monday to pay $35,680 in restitution to three separate victims — including one woman in her 80s and another in her 70s — after earlier pleading guilty in provincial court to charges under the Fair Trading Act.

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Judge Joyce Lester described the 2011 and 2012 offences as “serious and related to the public interest” and noted Wright had either done some work, no work or “shoddy” work in each of the Edmonton-area cases and all of the homes were “left in disarray.”

Lester also noted that Wright has a prior history of doing similar crimes dating back to 2007.

The judge gave Wright 228 days credit for time spent in pre-trial custody which means he has already served his sentence.

However, Wright was still taken into custody on an arrest warrant for failing to pay a $2,800 restitution order issued in Vegreville on April 19 on another Fair Trading Act charge relating to entering into a prepaid contract without having a licence to do so. He was also fined $5,750 at the time.

Crown prosecutor Prima Davies told court Monday that Wright had used “very high-pressure sales tactics” to get three sets of “very trusting homeowners” to agree to contracts for services.