Couple left with shell of a house after £96k cons
ADEAF couple have been left with a shell of a home after they were conned out of nearly £100,000 by two sets of cowboy builders.
Malcolm Wilcox and Delwin Slade, both 64, wanted an openplan kitchen extension to allow more light into their home so they can communicate easier through sign language.
They paid £56,000 up-front to a local builder who disappeared without finishing the job.
The couple engaged a second tradesman to complete the project but after handing over a further £40,000 they still have an empty shell 18 months after work began.
Police are now investigating and the penniless couple have launched a crowdfunding campaign to try to raise enough money to finish the works.
Malcolm’s daughter Kerry Greaves, 33, said: “I am disgusted by this whole situation.
“It makes me sick that there are people out there preying on vulnerable people.
“The work needs to be done and we need to find the money now, but there is none. Both of these builders have taken every last penny.
“These vulnerable people with a disability were completed taken advantage of.”
The couple used an inheritance to buy the two-bed property in Podsmead, Gloucestershire, from the local council in 2015.
Work started in March 2017 but by August that year the work was on hold as the builder started making excuses about “being ill”.
Kerry said: “Basically, the first guy just came up with excuses and saying he was unwell and that was it.
“Then the second guy has wormed his way in and taking advantage of my dad.
“It’s unbelievable - they are just lowlifes who have taken dad for a ride.”
In October 2017 Malcolm engaged a second local builder who pledged to finish the project within two months if £40,000 was paid in instalments.
Father-of-two Malcolm said: “He took cash and money through bank transfers.
“The first payment was for £12,000 because he said that he needed to pay for labourers and materials.
“All we saw him buy was three packets of bricks because most of the materials were already here from the last builder.
“Then he told us he needed a further £8,000 mid-December so he could get all of the materials ready for the New Year.
“He just asked for more and more money all of the time and we trusted that he would do the right thing by us.”
Works have now ground to a halt and the couple now have an extension with half-built walls, bare brickwork, an incomplete roof and no windows.
They cannot cook hot meals because they have no kitchen and the bathroom floods every time they use the bath.
Kerry suspects the two builders may be known to each other and were working together to fleece a vulnerable target.
The family initially contacted trading standards but were told it was a matter of fraud for the police.
Karen Smith, Head of Regulatory Services and Consumer Protection at Gloucestershire County Council, said: “We are aware of this case and have carried out an investigation.
“Following discussions with the police it was agreed this had hallmarks of a fraud rather than a breach of consumer protection legislation.
“As trading standards officers, our responsibility is to investigate circumstances where a product is unsafe or is miss-described.”
A spokesperson for Gloucestershire Constabulary said: “We can confirm that we are investigating an allegation of fraud in the Gloucester area. The investigation is ongoing.”
The pressure and stress of the situation has left Malcolm, who was receiving disability benefits before the build due to a bad shoulder, with a list of further health complaints.
A JustGiving page has been set up to help the couple at https:// www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kerry-greaves?utm_id=106& utm_term=zrA8qgxyq