Shelley Sawkins, 75, phoned her builder, Christian Williams, and found he was in Lanzarote. That call, the BBC reported, was when she realised the money she had handed over was paying for his holiday.
Williams, 54, of Mynydd Isa in Flintshire, is now serving a two-year prison sentence. He was jailed last December after admitting one count of theft and three of fraud by false representation. The offences involved four families.
A £21,000 quote that kept growing
Shelley and her husband Barry, 63, hired Williams to build an extension on their bungalow in Buckley. The initial quote was £21,000. Work began in 2023, then stalled almost at once. Williams rarely turned up himself. He sent workers whom Shelley described as elderly and apparently unqualified for much of the job, and he kept pressing for more payments, saying it would speed things up.
It did not. The suppliers of the bespoke bifold doors had never been paid, so the couple bought them a second time. One wall wobbled when pushed. After the roof was worked on, rainwater came pouring in one night. “I was up in the middle of the night collecting water in buckets while trying to look after my husband,” Shelley said. Barry has Alzheimer’s disease. “I didn’t have enough buckets. I was in tears.”
About £30,000 went to Williams. Another £20,000 went to other builders sent in to repair the damage, bringing the fix to £50,000, almost £30,000 above that first quote. Three years on, the extension still has an uneven floor and unfinished parts, and the couple want to move into sheltered accommodation. “He would disappear for weeks and then come back with excuse after excuse,” Shelley said.
Other families, same pattern
Dave Eddon, 42, and his wife Claire, of Higher Kinnerton, wanted a two-storey extension while raising three children aged one, two and four. Williams told them it would take about four months and cost £100,000, starting in September 2022. Dave paid him more than £56,000 in instalments. After a busy first fortnight, barely anything happened for four months, and the excuses piled up: holidays, missing tradespeople, no supplies.
Williams abandoned the job the following February. Other contractors refused to take it on, so the Eddons finished it themselves with individual tradespeople and Dave’s own labour. That cost a further £60,000, leaving them £16,000 out of pocket. Dave said his wife suffered insomnia, heart palpitations and panic attacks.
Mark Barber-Riley, 75, of Holywell, hired Williams in March 2022 to build a downstairs bedroom for his disabled grandson. It was due to be finished by August. By January 2023 it was not, and Williams said he could not get workers to come. Mark found an electrician himself; Williams agreed to pay him, then said he had no money. Mark had already paid £44,000 and spent another £20,000 finishing the work.
A £1 repayment order
At a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing earlier in June, Mold Crown Court heard that Williams, trading as Chris Williams Construction, had benefited by £163,051.70 from his offending. His assets, though, meant he could repay only £1. He had been posting Facebook photos of holidays and days at the races.
The Federation of Master Builders said it removed the company from its website in March 2023, after a monitoring process and a second complaint about delays and incomplete work led a committee that included trading standards officers to expel it. A spokesperson said only 2% of member jobs end in a complaint. The federation has long called for the licensing of builders. The Department for Business and Trade told the BBC it supports the TrustMark scheme, which helps consumers find good traders and offers redress when work falls short.
