Cowboy builder tore my home apart and disappeared off the face of the earth with £14k

A rogue builder tore Sheri Ingram's home apart and "disappeared off the face of the earth" with £14,000.

In February, Lee Slocombe, from Swansea, was jailed for six years after defrauding nine victims of £400,000, with this his latest conviction in a decade of offending.

The UK government last month announced plans to give people greater protections against "cowboy builders" through a database of trusted traders.

Ingram, from Cardiff, welcomed it, but questioned where the incentive would be for tradespeople to sign up to the voluntary scheme.

Another couple who were "scarred for life" by a rogue trader who left them £30,000 out of pocket said it would give more confidence to homeowners.

"He (Slocombe) was recommended to us by a serving police officer who my ex knew," Ingram said.

"So why on earth would we have not trusted him?"

Slocombe's offending covered a period of 11 years, and he even targeted nine people to carry out work on their homes when on bail using a false name.

It began in 2015 after Ingram and her now ex-partner bought a house in Aberbeeg, Blaenau Gwent, which they planned to renovate and move into.

The then 21-year-old appointed Slocombe to build an extension and make the ground floor of the home open plan.

She admitted they were not experts in building work, and while it looked like lots was going on, Slocombe kept finding problems and asking for more cash to solve them.

While for the first six weeks, he was "very responsive", Ingram said he then "disappeared off the face of the earth" with £14,000.

Her ex-partner eventually managed to get hold of him, but he insinuated all the money was gone.

Slocombe suggested he was expecting a payout from an injury that he suffered on another building job, and would get the cash back and continue with the work.

But that never happened.

The home was later restored by the the Channel 5 programme Cowboy Builders - aimed at helping families who have been exploited by them.

In February, Slocombe, then 33, of Delhi Street, Swansea, was jailed for six years after carrying out dangerous building work at properties in Cardiff, Bridgend and Swansea.

The £400,000 fraud cost his nine victims more than £547,000 in total when adding costs for rectifying his dangerous work, according to Cardiff council.

He had pleaded guilty to participating in a fraudulent business between March 2021 and May 2023, with one charge against him and one against his company, LSP Developments.

Slocombe was on Crown Court bail when these offences were committed.

It was the third time he had been given a prison sentence for offending that dated back to 2015.

That year, he was jailed for 43 months for three offences of fraud, and in 2023 he received a sentence of five years and five months after defrauding seven families of £150,000.

Cardiff Crown Court heard in February that Slocombe had called himself Lee Lewis to avoid his previous convictions being discovered, and on two occasions took a fake and unqualified gas engineer to properties, leaving them in a "potentially lethal state".

He was also made subject to a Criminal Behaviour Order, banning him from carrying out building, maintenance or gardening work in the UK for life, and disqualified from being a company director until 2031.

Ingram said the plans were a "good step in the right direction" as "the power imbalance is just so big" between people looking to renovate their homes and builders.

"There needs to be better protections in place, there has to be," she added.

"I would expect the government to take accountability if the project did go wrong if I used the database.

"I don't think traders would sign up and the reality is they don't need to."

The UK government plans to create greater protections for people renovating their homes against 'cowboy builders', through a new database of trusted traders and a payment system offering more safeguards.

Traders signing up to the scheme will need to demonstrate certain standards of customer service, transparency and dispute resolution.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said unscrupulous tradespeople "leave families with months of stress" as well as unfinished work.

He added they gave their "decent, hardworking" counterparts a bad name and hoped to put "the cowboys out of business".

The UK government said more than a quarter of people who carried out home improvements in the past 18 months had experienced problems, such as builders disappearing after upfront payments were made.

It cited a survey carried out for the Competition and Markets Authority, suggesting customers lost more than £10bn in 2024 on home and garden maintenance services due to losses, overpriced costs or unfair practices by traders.

Barry and Shelley Sawkins, from Flintshire, lost more than £30,000 to rogue builder Christian Williams, who left their new extension unfinished, with water pouring into their home.

Williams, 54, is currently serving a two-year prison sentence after admitting theft and three counts of fraud by false representation involving four families.

In a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing in June, Mold Crown Court heard Williams, trading as Chris Williams Construction, benefitted to the tune of £163,051.70 from his offending, but his assets meant he could only pay back £1.

The extension remains unfinished three years after work began in 2023, and Shelley said this makes it hard for the couple to love their home.

"We're in a place now where we are stuck," she added.

"It has scarred us for life really."

They hope to eventually move to St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, to be closer to their daughter once the work is complete.

"I really do respect him [Prime Minister Burnham]. I like his approach. He speaks from the ground up," Shelley said.

"I think the government plans would help give people more confidence."

The Federation of Master Builders also raised concerns over the voluntary nature of the scheme.

Chief executive Brian Berry said: "The prime minister's push to crack down on rogue builders is a great move for the industry.

"However, it is a real concern that this is just another voluntary programme without regulation behind it."

Minister for the future of work Kate Dearden was questioned on BBC Breakfast about the scheme and said: "We want to act quickly and get support to people as soon as possible.

"Of course if it was compulsory, that would take a little bit more time for us to develop and to work to.

"However, we are going to be watching this really closely in terms of the uptake and the impact that it has in the sector."