Cowboy builder cons widow out of £60k and leaves home uninhabitable

27 June 2024 , 19:36

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A widow’s home was left uninhabitable after she paid a con-man builder a total of £60,400 for work (Image: Norfolk Trading Standards / SWNS)

A widow’s home was left uninhabitable after she paid a con man builder a total of £60,400 for work he failed to complete.

In pictures, the botched work after a supposed re-roofing was left unfinished with tiles stripped and not replaced - with only a leaky plastic tarpaulin keeping out the rain. Wesley Theobald, 33, was initially employed to fix a leaking pipe at her property at Ashill, Norfolk, but instead, he left it a chaotic building site with shoddy and unfinished work. The roofer who is self-employed, and used the alias Wesley Moriarty, was jailed for three years at Norwich Crown Court (June 21) after admitting 19 offences including theft and fraud. He pleaded guilty to fraud by failing to disclose to customers that he had been previously declared bankrupt and giving a false business address.

Wesley Theobald, 33, swindled almost £72,000 from three clients (Norfolk Trading Standards / SWNS)

The Criminal Behaviour Order, with no end date specified, remains in place. The homeowner, who met the builder through an online advert seeking a builder for the initial minor job, said she had felt "entirely trapped and coerced." Wesley, of King's Lynn, Norfolk, told his customer he had spotted a problem with roof tiles that needed to be urgently fixed at a cost of £2,800. He later said the issue was worse than thought and required a complete re-roofing costing £7,000. However, the bill rose a further £3,000 when he said the cost of replacement tiles had increased.

Wesley then claimed there were problems with the gables of her property that also required repairs at a cost of a further £13,000. The homeowner's total costs for work ended up at £60,400 and none of the jobs were completed properly. When the homeowner eventually sought an independent survey it concluded his work had been "unnecessary and poorly carried out.”

The window who paid £64k to a con man builder said throughout the job being done she felt 'entirely trapped and coerced' (Norfolk Trading Standards / SWNS)

Wesley's year-long criminal activities between July 2022 and July 2023 started just weeks after he had been released from prison for similar offences. It also saw him fleece a 73-year-old from Norwich who initially employed him to repair a garage roof but was left almost £7,000 out of pocket. A woman in Dereham lost £4,750 when he said her roof needed to be replaced despite only having been employed to clean it.

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Recorder David Herbert told him upon sentencing: "You brought nothing but misery to these households."

Sophie Leney, head of Norfolk County Council's trading standards team, said: "It is vital that rogue traders like Theobald are prosecuted. Despite previous convictions resulting in custodial sentences, he continued to take money from customers for materials and work that was not completed. He also failed to comply with a criminal behaviour order, imposed as a result of those previous offences. We hope that this latest sentence reinforces the message that Norfolk Trading Standards will continue to bring action against those who commit such crimes."

Mariam Khan