RICHARD Melhuish, who is accused of conning a man with learning disabilities into paying £7,000 for a fake pest control operation, told police he had just been there to clean the property.

At Oxford Crown Court yesterday, a jury heard a police interview in which Melhuish, who denies two charges of fraud by false representation, told Det Con Felicity Young he had been offered cleaning work by a man called Jonathan Lee Jones.

Melhuish, 24, of Aldermaston, near Reading, said Jones had collected him from his home on March 24 and taken him with another man, whose name he did not know, to a house in Howard Street, East Oxford.

Jones told him his job was to vacuum the property, for which Melhuish expected to receive payment of around £60. On arrival, Melhuish told Det Con Young that Jones and the other man had been let in by the tenant, 48-year-old Robert Boulter.

Melhuish said he was told to put on protective clothing and clean the rooms on the ground floor. He said Jones had asked him to make notes in a notebook about rat droppings on the floor and had dictated what he should write.

The case continues.