A PAIR of cowboy builders who charged people £8,000 for shoddy work that should've cost less than £1,000 have avoided jail.

Gavin Hickman, who ran the now defunct 24/7 Roofing business, along with employee Matthew Rose ripped off the "elderly and vulnerable" in Birmingham during Covid-19.

Customers were left having to fork out thousands more after they were left with unfinished work and had to pay to get their homes repaired.

Hickman, 40, and Rose, 43, over-charged for what they carried out while failing to complete jobs.

And some days, they even failed to turn up to people's homes, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

A 79-year-old man in poor health had contacted the company about being ripped off before and wanted someone reliable.

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Hickman agreed a price of £4,000 for a number of jobs with a time-scale of a couple of weeks.

But it ended up taking three months and the pensioner was left with his property in a state.

Another victim paid £3k for a garden pond and partition wall – but it was never completed.

One customer who had cladding done even noticed it falling down within a matter of weeks after it wasn't put on properly.

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But both rogue traders avoided being sent to prison.

Hickman admitted three offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.

He received a 15-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months.

Rose admitted two similar offences and received a 13-month term suspended for 18 months.

The pair were investigated by Birmingham City Council's Trading Standards department.

Barrister Catherine Ravenscroft said: "It became the norm for them to work four hours a day."

She also added it was a common that customers were not provided with any paperwork.

Ms Ravenscroft said: "Building works were carried out at various addresses which fell below the standard typically expected of a reasonably competent contractor.

"The failures were caused by a lack of due skill and care on behalf of the defendants.

"There was targeting of elderly and vulnerable adults. They over-charged for work done and recommended unnecessary work.

"These offences were taking place over a long period of time and caused a significant degree of stress and turmoil to customers."

A building surveyor hired by the council found that Hickman and Rose had charged their victims a total of £8,200.

But the work was only valued at £950.

The court heard that between January 2020 and February 2021 the company's bank account received over £120,000.

RIPPED OFF

Recorder Marc Brown said: "In each case significant sums were paid by the victims who were elderly and in return they received little value. Instead they were left with the costs of having to put it right.

"The victims had to deal with the stress and worry of your demands for money and failures to turn up on time or at all.

"These offences were motivated by financial gain and involved the targeting of elderly and vulnerable adults."

Hickman has 31 previous convictions for 55 offences.

Kerendeep Garcha, defending, argued that Hickman had not deliberately targeted his victims.

She said: "He accepts the work completed at each property fell below the expected standard and accepts that the work carried out lacked due skill and care.

"He was director of 24/7 Roofing and the offences took place during the pandemic when he was struggling to keep the company going.

"He accepts he employed various people to carry out jobs and accepts he didn't monitor the work."

Rose has 13 convictions for 44 offences.

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Clare Rennie, defending, said: "Mr Rose knows now he was entirely out of his depth taking on too much work.

"He understands there being some breach of trust and he wishes to apologise to the victims for their inconvenience and hardship."

Know your rights

If the building company you're using goes bust before the job is finished, you do have rights.

According to Consumer Rights Expert, if you paid a deposit between £100 and £30,000 on a credit card you can try using Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

This would give the credit provider equal liability in law for a breach of contract.

You could also try and claim the deposit and any out of pocket expenses back from the finance company.

You might also be covered if you have a finance agreement.

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