‘I have done everything possible to get justice’

A widow, whose husband died when their son was 18 months old, is warning people not to use a ‘rogue builder’ who received thousands of pounds from her but never completed work on her home.

Shelley Weeks, from Coxheath, spent five years determining how best to invest a lump sum left from husband Wayne’s pension fund following his death from leukaemia aged just 33.

So last year the 43-year-old opted for an extension to her Duke of York Way home, where she lives with son Olly.

She commissioned Trigon Property Care for the building work, owned by Christopher Hook.

She claims the builder received £60,000 to complete a single-storey extension at the back of her house but failed to finish the job. Instead, her back garden was left like a building site, with half a brick wall and hardly any space for Olly, now eight, to play.

In a bid to get justice for the unfinished job, she took Mr Hook to court, spending more than £13,000 in legal fees, and now has a charge on his house. The order means if he were to sell his home, she would have a claim to receive £70,000, which includes legal costs.

However, she thinks this will be unlikely as others are believed to have orders on his home and therefore also entitled to a share of any sale.

She said: “Even though I knew it was likely my money would be lost I just couldn’t let it go. “When you lose someone that tragically it puts a lot of things in perspective and money isn’t top of your list any more but

I had to feel like I had done everything possible to get justice and get back what was mine.”

Since publishing her story on Facebook, Mrs Weeks’ post has been shared more than 4,000 times and several people have contacted her claiming to have had problems with the builder. Mr Hook declined to comment when contacted by the Kent Messenger.