Insulation scandal: Contractor faked our signatures and received public money

Tony and Becs Wadley say their signatures were forged and documents faked by a contractor under a government scheme to tackle fuel poverty.

The BBC understands that Stellar Energy, which carried out insulation work at their south Wales home, is being investigated by Octopus Energy, the project's funders, over allegations of fraud. Stellar Energy denies wrongdoing.

Some 32,000 homes have had faulty insulation fitted since 2022. The government says 4,892 have been remediated. Becs Wadley says it's been ''soul destroying'' trying to get her house fixed.

The government says it's taking action to hold eco installers to account ''while introducing better compensation and protection for consumers.''

The Wadleys had internal wall insulation, solar panels and heat pumps fitted in their Gower Peninsula home in 2024 under the government's ECO4 scheme of home energy upgrades. They say they qualified for the scheme because of their son's asthma.

The Wadleys told the BBC December last year that botched insulation caused black mould to grow in multiple rooms.

Six months on, Mrs Wadley says little progress has been made on repairs and that the company has "destroyed" their lives for several years. "We're all sick in different ways, mentally and physically."

Stellar Energy, an energy efficiency installer, says that of 690 homes it has worked on, the Wadleys' property is "the only one which has resulted in a significant complaint".

The company also says it had "limited access to the property while the Wadleys pursued their own independent investigations" and says it "remains willing to provide reasonable assistance, where possible, to help bring the matter to a conclusion."

The BBC understands the company could have received around £80,000 of public money via the ECO4 scheme.

The Energy Minister Martin McCluskey met Mrs Wadley recently and has told the BBC his government department wants to get "directly involved" in her case. He said "the situation people are having to live in is absolutely intolerable."

The government says it's strengthening oversight of the industry to include new powers to hold installers to account and bans to prevent them working on government schemes if they don't meet high standards.

The Wadleys have recently discovered in the paperwork submitted by Stellar for the scheme that their signatures appeared to have been forged several times by the company and a subcontractor.

They also found a photo of an electric wall mounted heater in the documents that was not even taken in their home.

"It makes me very suspicious about what the company were up to," says Mrs Wadley.

More than 300,000 homes had heat pumps, solar panels and insulation installed through the ECO4 scheme, which launched in 2022 for elderly and vulnerable people on low incomes. The £4bn scheme, which is now closed, was funded by household energy bills.

The amount installers could claim under ECO4 depended on how much they could improve a home's energy efficiency. Insiders tell the BBC that some overclaimed public funds by exaggerating poor efficiency ratings.

Sonny, a retrofit assessor, says many installers did this by staging photos of inefficient heating systems.

"Installers would go with panel heaters in the van and then glue a socket to a wall and then hang the heater. They'd then photograph it and take it to the next job," he says.

Stellar Energy says it no longer employs the staff who administered applications at the time, and rejects any suggestion that it "encouraged, or knowingly permitted" falsifying information.

Stellar says it was "not previously aware" of the panel heater allegation, adding: "We reject any suggestion that Stellar Energy would knowingly record information incorrectly in order to influence an ABS score".

Octopus Energy, which funded the work via the ECO4 scheme but did not carry out the installation, says it is "committed to helping put things right". The BBC understands Octopus is investigating the case and has passed findings to energy regulator Ofgem.

In April, the Serious Fraud Office arrested four people in connection with a "sophisticated conspiracy" involving three energy efficiency installers - which do not include Stellar - to fraudulently claim £44m in public money through the ECO4 scheme.

The government is creating a redress fund for damaged homes where the installer has gone out of business and the guarantee for the work is missing or doesn't cover the cost of repairs. The fund will be managed by the charity National Energy Foundation and will be funded by voluntary contributions from energy suppliers.

In a BBC interview Energy Minister Martin McCluskey would not be drawn on how much money would be in the fund but said ''we are confident it will cover what we need it to cover'' and said the government would keep monitoring it.