Cowboy builder who scammed 50 homeowners in 'worst of its kind case' jailed

22 February 2024 , 15:54

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Lawrence Martin was jailed (Image: Solent News & Photo Agency)

A cowboy builder who scammed more than 50 homeowners out of nearly £650,000 in one of the worst cases of its kind has been jailed for five years.

Lawrence Martin took advantage of vulnerable customers including one woman who was having work done to help her dying father in law, a court heard. Described as "fundamentally dishonest" he pressured clients into paying tens of thousands of pounds, before declaring more and more work needed doing.

One couple lost more than £110,000, while dozens of heartbroken victims were left with wrecked homes and empty bank accounts as their life-savings were cleaned out. Martin, 36, who had no roofing qualifications, demanded more money, telling one customer 'you got more chance of winning the lottery' than getting a refund.

Over nearly five years, the father of four left customers across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in tears and some had to change the locks to stop him returning, Southampton Crown Court was told. The work that he did do was so shoddy, many cancelled the rest, demanded a refund and had to fork out thousands more on professionals to fix the damage.

Damage and poor work at customer Chrissie Bacon's home (Solent News & Photo Agency)

Martin's work was poor (Solent News & Photo Agency)

Prosecutor Ethu Crorie told the court clients included a widow, those with disabilities, and the family of a terminally ill man and told people if they continued to complain he would walk off the job. Martin, of Southampton, acquired many of his customers through the Rated People website.

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The court was read Martin's correspondence with disgruntled customers. In one he told the daughter of an 84 year old on the Isle of Wight, 'there is not a chance in hell' of a refund after his botch job.

One couple, from Alresford, near Winchester, lost £48,794 and had to spend a £40,000 fixing the mess he had made. A building surveyor stated that 'there was no justification for the complete roof to be stripped of tiles and replaced with slate'. The court heard Martin 'misled' them by advising there were rotten timbers in the roof.

Sharon Netley and partner Paul Harris came off worst, spending £92,668 and paying £22,000 on remedial costs. Martin told Mr Harris that if Facebook comments were removed and the complaint to Trading Standards was withdrawn then he would refund the £50,000 - which he never did.

The work, which began in September 2021, continued into October 2022, while he was on bail. "This defendant shouldn't be doing any work of this kind at all - he is clearly absolutely incompetent," Mr Crorie said. "He is fundamentally dishonest."

The cowboy builder caused damage (Solent News & Photo Agency)

He refused to give refunds (Solent News & Photo Agency)

Defending Jennifer Brenton said his trading 'was not fraudulent from the outset'. She admitted Martin was 'erroneously' identifying work to be done and with complaints rising and refunds being requested, Martin started 'robbing from Peter to pay Paul' to try and pay off the 'irate' customers. She added Martin felt remorse and wanted to pass on his apologies to those he had defrauded.

Judge Peter Henry said: "He may be incompetent at building, but he is not incompetent at defrauding people. There was serious harm caused as evidenced by their victim personal statements. The impact upon those has been substantial, not just in terms of financial loss but in terms of health, anxiety and depression and work they have had to do to get their premises repaired properly.

"Serious, detrimental harm has been caused by you - your consumers have incurred considerable costs. Your disgraceful conduct persisted over a very long time. You defrauded over 50 victims, you used bullying and aggressive behaviour to your customers, including using a false identity in order to continue to perpetrate fraud.

"People like you are a thorough menace - not only giving the building industry a bad name but for causing victims devastating injury. The impact of what you did on people is significant. Many of your customers were vulnerable."

Martin was made subject of a 10 year Criminal Behaviour Order, barring him from any kind of building/roofing work. Speaking after the sentencing, victim Sharon Netley said: "It will never be long enough, after two and a half years he could be out. We were left in debt, we had to take loans from the bank, credit cards, but Paul's mum helped."

Chrissie Bacon lost thousands (Solent News & Photo Agency)

Chrissie and Mark Bacon, who spent £44,000 on a garage conversion to house her terminally ill father-in-law, have been left with incomplete work by Martin after hiring him in the summer of 2021. The 52 year old was hoping to have her father-in-law at home for Christmas with them, but he died without being able live out his final days with his family.

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She said: "It was a very expensive and painful mistake, and this has been the worse time of our lives. During this time, dad's health deteriorated. We hassled Lawrence more and more to complete the house, but he would not do so." They spent their life savings on the work and even had to remortgage their home before forking out an extra £46,000 to repair the incomplete work. An additional £30,000 still needs to be spent, she said.

Kelly-Ann Mills