A rogue trader exposed by the Manchester Evening News has had his jail term cut from nine months to five weeks - in a move the newspaper described as a "dismal decision".

Trading standards bosses, who launched the prosecution on kitchen firm boss Vance Miller, said it was "devastating news".

But the Office of Fair Trading said that sentencing was a matter for the courts.

MEN editor Paul Horrocks explained: "Vance Miller, whose shoddy kitchen business ripped off customers to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds, was described by Judge Richard Holman as "cunning and manipulative" before he was jailed for nine months.

"Just a fortnight later, the same judge accepted Miller's promise to clean up his act and reduced the sentence to five weeks.

"We share the dismay of the conman's victims and trading standards chiefs who brought him to book after an MEN investigation."

The paper labelled Miller's court appearance as a "grovelling promise" which followed him being jailed for breaking an order to stop him conning people.

The paper revealed how hundreds of people across Britain had forked out thousands of pounds for kitchens with units which had to be held together with sticky tape and of doors which melted when the oven was turned on.

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