Dodgy builder who defrauded two Shropshire women and forced a mum of five to use a ladder instead of stairs for months is spared jail
Charlie J Collins had carried out work on two Shropshire women’s homes in 2022.
A dodgy builder who defrauded two Shropshire women out of nearly £30,000 - leaving one with a ladder instead of a set of stairs for several months - has been spared jail and ordered to pay them back.
Charlie J Collins, aged 27, of Hazel Way, Nantwich in Cheshire had carried out work on two Shropshire women’s homes in 2022, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard on Thursday.
Mr Simon Parry, prosecuting, told the court that the first woman wanted to extend her home, and accepted a quote from Collins for £144,143. Collins had said it would take two months to complete.
While the work began as planned in February 2022, Mr Parry said delays soon began and by June of 2022 the customer began to complain about the progress and the quality of the work.
He told the court that issues of materials not arriving and work not being completed went on until eventually in November 2022, the woman became “fed up” and the relationship between Collins and the customer “broke down”.
Mr Parry said over the months, the woman had paid 15 invoices to Collins, which included VAT totalling £23,240.
But after the woman complained to trading standards, it was discovered via HMRC that Collins was not even VAT registered.
It was also found that one of the invoices totalling £3,682 was for new windows that had never even been ordered.
Mr Parry told the court that Collins’ second victim was a mother of five who was renovating her home and had paid Collins £53,000 and he began on site in July 2022.
Mr Parry said the woman soon became concerned about delays and the quality of the work.
The court heard that in July 2022, Collins removed the woman’s staircase and placed a ladder for the woman and her five children to use, promising new stairs would arrive and be installed the next day.
They never arrived.
In fact, Mr Collins said the woman and her school age children were forced to use the ladder until October 2022 when she gave Collins an ultimatum to finish the job.
He failed to complete the work and she dismissed him, asking for a refund the work not done, including the installation of the stairs that never arrived.
Mr Parry said the staircase had never in fact been ordered by Collins and the woman was forced to re-order the stairs and get another contractor to install them.
Collins was interviewed under caution by Shropshire Council’s Trading Standards and went on to admit three counts of fraud by false representation against his two victims.
Mr Parry said that Collins left his first victim out of pocket by around £27,240, including falsely taking £23,590 in VAT, and had left his second victim £1,930 out of pocket for charging her for stairs he had never ordered.
He added that Collins had no previous convictions.
Defence barrister Ms Rosemary Proctor said Collins was just 22 at the time of the offences and while he “was an adult he was not an adult by many years”.
She described him as “astonishingly naive” and “out of his depth” but added Collins was not a “deliberate fraudster or a con artist”.
She said that eventually his business fell apart and Collins was now working in the construction industry for an employer.
Judge Julian Taylor told the defendant: “You behaved foolishly. You thought running a business was easy but it was not.
“You let these ladies down very badly and what is really reprehensible is that you did not face up to it and tell them you had got into a bit of a mess.”
He sentenced Collins to three years in prison, but suspended the sentence for two years.
He also ordered Collins pay back his first victim £27,240.20 in compensation and his second victim £1,930 within two years.
Collins was also ordered to pay £1,500 in court costs and undertake 100 hours of unpaid work.
The judge told the court: “If he goes around committing any other building scams he will be back and won’t be given another chance.”