Rogue builder admits to unfair trading and fraud
IMAGES of half-finished garden work by a rogue trader have been unveiled after he admitted defrauding two householders.
Stockton Council brought Paul John Dennis Sayers to book for failing to finish landscaping work at two homes in Ingleby Barwick.
Guilty pleas were entered on Sayers’s behalf to five charges at Teesside Magistrates’ Court.
The 34-year-old, of Brentford Road, Norton, pleaded guilty to three trading offences and two counts of fraud. Action against Stockton’s Aaron Wood, of Londonderry Road, was dropped.
The charges admitted by Sayers were:
■ Unfair trading between March 23, 2021, and April 30, 2021, by failing to adequately undertake and complete gardening work at a property on Talbenny Grove, Ingleby Barwick
■ Fraud by false representation between March 23, 2021, and May 14, 2021, via a WhatsApp message that he knew either was, or might be, untrue or misleading, to make gain. This related to a £4,200 payment for landscaping work on Talbenny Grove.
■ Unfair trading in March 2021 by stating he required payment of £2,250 for materials for landscape gardening work at Bancroft Drive, Ingleby
Barwick.
■ Fraud by false representation by making a statement he knew was, or might be true, to make gain relating to a £2,250 for landscaping material at Bancroft Drive when no materials were supplied
■ Unfair trading by failing to complete gardening work at Bancroft Drive in March 2021
In the wake of the pleas, the council released images of some of the unfinished work carried out. They showed half finished paving at Bancroft Drive in a rubble-strewn garden.
Sayers is due to appear at court again on July 19.