Episode 13 Cowboy Trap

We're travelling all over the UK to meet the homeowners

forced to live with the grim consequences

of employing a cowboy builder.

There's just so much wrong in here.

There's door handles banging, there's things not been sealed,

there's things lifting off.

It's just a complete and utter shambles.

With their shoddy workmanship or downright lies,

cowboy builders are unscrupulous villains

who not only destroy dreams, they wreck lives too.

What would you say to this cowboy builder

if you were to see him on the street?

I would walk away.

I don't ever want to see him in my life again.

We've got the good guys in our posse

to help turn these houses from hell into heavenly homes.

Wow! A finished kitchen.

It's all wired up, it's all ready to go,

and it looks fantastic, doesn't it?

This is...I'm sure this is exactly what Kirstine had in mind.

It's lovely. It's really nice, isn't it?

Yeah, absolutely delighted. What a difference.

Well, it works, it fits, it's finished.

You know, it's thought cowboy builders cost Britons

over £700 million each year.

So if you think you know how to spot one, think again.

Make no mistake, the next 45 minutes

could help keep you out of the Cowboy Trap.

On today's Cowboy Trap,

a single mum whose dream kitchen conversion

turned into a nightmare bodge, when the builder she employed

went on holiday, leaving unskilled labourers to do the work.

The room depresses me now.

I have been stressed. SO stressed.

I have sat and cried in here.

It has affected us greatly.

And three years after we help them out of the Cowboy Trap,

we catch up with a family in Leamington Spa

to find out what's happened since.

He's the first and the only builder in the country

to be issued ASBO.

-So he's the first ever builder in the UK to have an ASBO?

-Yes.

Our first Cowboy Trap location is in Aberdeen,

Scotland's third biggest city.

Historically, the fishing, shipbuilding,

and paper industries have strong links here.

But since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s,

it's been dubbed the energy capital of Europe. Pretty grand, eh?

Aberdeen is known as the city of bon accord,

or friendship and goodwill.

But it's the city's other nickname

that's better suited to today's Cowboy Trap,

the Granite City,

as we're on the trail of a cowboy builder

who has a heart of pure stone.

His unwitting victim lives in this three-bed semi.

It's home to Kirstine Yates, a divorced mum,

and her two children, Cara and Scott.

Kirstine first came to Aberdeen 20 years ago,

and she liked it so much she put down roots here.

It was very exciting.

I thought Aberdeen was an absolutely massive city.

Shopping was great.

I then went on to start a family and I class Aberdeen as home now.

These days, Kirstine enjoys a successful career

as a secretary for an oil company.

But home is where her heart is,

and one of her biggest pleasures in life

is cooking for her family and friends.

The kitchen area for my family is very important.

It does act as a hub when it comes to socialising.

Friends - not only my friends, my children's friends -

coming round to visit.

And it was Kirstine's love of entertaining in her home

that led her to draw up a wish list of improvements.

For some time, Kirstine had felt that the layout of her home

didn't really work for the family, so when her mum passed away,

she decided to spend her small inheritance on improving her house.

Stage one was making the kitchen open plan

by knocking through a wall,

and stage two, installing a new kitchen and decorating throughout.

The kind of kitchen that I had planned

was quite a modern-looking kitchen.

Obviously, the functionality of it is quite important as well,

because I do tend to cook quite a lot, and bake quite a lot.

When it came to finding a builder to do the work,

Kirstine thought she knew just the man.

She'd recently had French doors fitted,

and was happy with the results.

So the builder who did that job was her first port of call.

He made quite a good job of the doors,

so I went ahead and asked him

to provide me with a quotation for the full works,

and he told me that he had installed kitchens in the past

and he would be prepared to give me a quotation for the work.

The builder quoted £21,000 for the work,

fitting a brand new kitchen

and blocking up the archways between two of the rooms.

He said it would take just two weeks to complete,

and would take payment when the work was finished.

Kirstine didn't get any other quotes,

because she'd used him before and trusted him.

Not clever.

Take a tip from me.

Just because a builder's worked for you in the past

doesn't mean he has the skills necessary

to take on other jobs, especially big ones.

You wouldn't get a surgeon to fix your car,

so do you really want a window fitter to take down your roof?

Be sure to get quotes from other builders

and take up proper references for anyone you plan to use.

Or you might regret it.

Kirstine went ahead and booked the builder,

who agreed to hold off work for a few months

until the October half-term, when the family were going on holiday.

It all seemed sorted,

but from here on in, nothing would be straightforward.

As the weeks passed and October grew closer,

Kirstine began to have second thoughts about the builder.

He was a bit...how shall I say?

..FRIENDLY. He kept making excuses to come round for meetings

and started sending her text messages that were...

well, inappropriate.

I was out at a function and he sent me a text message

intimating that he wanted a naked picture of me,

which I kind of laughed off.

They made me quite nervous.

But, you know, in no uncertain terms,

was anything to happen in my eyes, in my view. Absolutely not.

Despite her doubts, Kirstine felt she could handle her cheeky builder,

but one week before the job was due to start,

this shameless so-called tradesman dropped a bombshell.

Not only did he want a stack of money up front,

but he wouldn't even be doing the job himself.

Yep, you heard that right.

He came round and asked me for £10,000, at which time,

he told me that he was also going on holiday to Florida,

which I didn't realise until that time.

But he assured me that the workmen that he was getting into my house,

I had no need to worry about anything,

there was nothing to worry about.

Incredibly, Kirstine went along with it.

No prizes for guessing that when she returned from her holiday,

she was in for a nasty shock.

I came back to a building site.

I had no heating in the whole house, bearing in mind it was -6 degrees.

I had no lighting in the kitchen,

I had no washing facilities,

I had no cooking facilities. I had nothing.

Kirstine didn't sleep a wink that night.

Her children were due home the following morning.

Me, as a mother, I have a duty of care to my children.

Half the kitchen contents were up in my son's bedroom.

The whole house was freezing.

I just felt so let down.

Things didn't look any better in the cold light of day.

The plastering was sloppy

and there were holes where the doorways should have been.

She called the builder, who put it all down to "bad luck."

You what?!

I really do not know what he meant by saying this was my bad luck.

I'm not...

..a person who has that much bad luck.

Well, whatever the builder was driving at,

over the next few days he had a go at sorting out the mess.

But when Kirstine got a friend round to have a look at the problems,

things turned nasty.

My friend was down on the floor,

explaining to him that he had really damaged the flooring.

He stood up and the builder started pointing in his face

and became quite heated.

At that point, I shouted to my daughter,

"If this man does not leave my house, phone the police."

And he duly departed, leaving behind a home in disarray.

There is just so much wrong in here.

There's door handles banging, there's things not being sealed,

there's things lifting off.

It's just a complete and utter shambles.

But it didn't end there.

Despite the shambolic state he'd left her house in,

Kirstine's cowboy wanted the rest of the money he was owed.

He contacted his local trade association,

who sent a surveyor round on his behalf.

And, as a result, Kirstine was hit with a £12,000 bill,

which she's refusing to pay.

I have got every intention of not giving him another penny.

I do not want him back in my house again.

I think he's butchered it enough as it is.

Yep, all Kirstine had to show for her £10,000

was a botched kitchen and walls that were flimsy and unsound.

Not only that, she was now faced with a legal battle.

Not surprisingly, all this has had

a profound emotional impact on the Yates family.

Kirstine's daughter, Cara, has been particularly badly affected.

It's been really difficult for her,

because you know, I haven't been as calm as what I normally am,

and it obviously has a knock-on effect on her as well.

Sadly, a building project

that should have improved this family's way of life

has ended up an albatross around their neck.

The room depresses me now, because I come in and see plasterwork,

flooring, scratches on units.

I have been stressed, SO stressed.

I have sat and cried in here. It has affected us greatly.

It is just not our family hub at this present time.

Which is what it should have been.

What a nightmare! It just goes to show

the kind of mess you can get yourself into

if you fail to check out your builder properly.

In Kirstine's case, not only is her house a dog's dinner,

but she's got all the stress of a possible legal battle too.

But the million-dollar question is, how much of a dog's dinner?

It's often the case on Cowboy Trap that on the surface,

things don't look too bad.

Cowboys can be cunning when it comes to covering their tracks,

so we asked independent building surveyor Ken Donald

to inspect the work.

He's been through it with a fine-tooth comb

and is about to fill me in on what he found,

bodge after bodge.

I'm sure, like you,

when I first went in, I thought, "That doesn't look too bad,"

but as soon as you start scratching the surface,

-everything just isn't being done properly.

-No.

There's just a whole host of minor defects.

There's nothing there that's built as it should've been built.

My issue here is that all this equipment is expensive.

New cupboards, new kitchen, new hob, all this stuff's expensive.

This has been bought, and because it's been put up wrong,

put up badly, then you're wasting your money on this.

Individually, the carcasses and the doors and things are fine.

But, yes, it's been handed to a complete amateur to put together.

It's not been set up properly, it's not been aligned,

it's not been fixed properly.

It's just...there's a whole litany of shortcomings.

'And if the way the kitchen's been fitted is intrinsically flawed,

'well, how about the floor?'

Laminates, or wooden flooring,

you know it needs room to expand,

but you don't want to see that in the middle of the floor, do you?

No, it's just a trap for moisture or dirt to accumulate,

and if it gets wet, then the water's going to start

separating the laminate from the base.

The other failure with that

is the lack of an overlap between the planks.

The overlap should be staggered...

-Yes.

-..to allow it to knit together as a floor.

Again, the material's probably sound,

but the fixing and the installation is just shoddy.

Any monkey can buy good materials.

It's what you do with them that makes a good kitchen, isn't it?

Indeed. And the units are fine,

but it's how they've been installed. It's appalling.

'No kidding! This is no cook's dream kitchen.

'It's a recipe for disaster.'

The sink isn't fixed, the hob isn't fixed.

The worktop above the oven isn't fixed either.

That's loose, and, yes,

the exposed metal surface underneath,

that will be scalding hot.

Well, that's dangerous.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work that out.

OK, this is the edge of a worktop.

No big deal, but this is a brand new worktop...

Yes, and it's been left as a finished job, but it's not.

The edge facing hasn't been cut properly.

It's not been fixed properly, and the joiner...

if you call him a "joiner," has walked away from it.

'So far, so bad.

'But third-rate joinery pales into insignificance

'when you realise the full extent of the botched job on the archway.'

On the other side of this are hanging kitchen cupboards

and a n extractor. Now, is this wall up to it?

I think they've just thrown up

a lightweight timber partition there and skimmed over it.

They've not fixed it back to the original walls,

they've not tied everything together,

because you can see movement around the infill.

'And that's a problem that will have to be fixed pronto,

'before it leads to any more damage to the wall.

'No wonder Kirstine told this builder

'to never darken her door again!

'And speaking of doors...'

The doorway was changed into the living room.

The new doorway into the living room,

just as you enter the house.

The way that they have constructed the facings and the hinges

just beggars belief.

How would you mark this work out of 10, Ken?

It's...

it's difficult, because when you go into it first of all you think,

"That actually looks...average,"

and then you start going into it with a fine-tooth comb

and you look at every little corner here and there,

and you come away with the end result, it's just...

There's nothing there that's satisfactory.

2 out of 10.

-2 out of 10?!

-Yes.

Well, Ken's certainly not pulling his punches,

and based on what I've just seen, I've got to agree with him.

Check out the evidence.

The flooring material isn't durable enough for a kitchen

and has been badly installed too.

None of the white goods have been fitted correctly.

Sink, tumble dryer, fridge and cooker, all wrong.

And the kitchen units are full of defects.

Then there's the cracking in the kitchen,

caused by that structurally unsound wall,

a question mark over the electrics,

slipshod carpentry, woeful paintwork,

and let's not forget,

there's the threat of a lengthy legal battle in the mix too.

In short, this would have been a right comedy of errors

if the whole thing wasn't so bitter.

The only hope of a happy ending, our good guys.

And here's the man in charge, Stephen Manderson.

So much needs doing to get Kirstine's dream back on track,

she's chipping in.

First things first,

making safe that botched wall between the kitchen and lounge.

Then fitting proper installation to leave things snug as well as secure.

Then it's on to that kitchen,

where the good guys need to rip it up and start again.

From carpentry to electrics,

there's a huge shopping list to get through

before a redecoration can begin.

So can the fellas right all the wrongs? Only time will tell.

I'm in Aberdeen, where Kirstine Yates, a divorced mother of two,

spent her inheritance on improving the family home.

But her frisky cowboy builder left her with a total bodge

and the stress of an ongoing legal dispute too.

Well, our good guys have now finished their work,

so let's see how Kirstine's getting on.

'Kirstine was truly at the end of her tether.

'I really hope things have taken a turn for the better.'

-Hi, Kirstine!

-Hello, Jonnie. How are you?

I'm very well, thank you. Have the builders finished?

They certainly have. Would you like to come in?

I would love to. Thank you very much.

As soon as I get inside, I can't help but have a sneaky look around.

Instantly, I can see the transformation in the living room.

And at last, Kirstine has the smart, stylish kitchen

she always wished for.

Before I took a closer look,

I want to speak to Kirstine about one particular aspect

of her Cowboy Trap experience.

This so-called builder may have massively under-delivered,

but he also overstepped the mark in more ways than one.

What surprises me is that he's turned abusive,

but at the start of this, he was overly friendly, wasn't he?

Yes, certainly, yeah.

I have a few text messages from him.

I can't really say on camera...

Like what? Have you got some?

-Yes, yes.

-Can I have a look?

-Yes.

What?!

I see here you've put, like, "LOL" back at him.

You're kind of...

It's not that I found it funny,

I just didn't know how to reply to it,

and I'm not the type for confrontation.

So I just kind of laughed it off, I suppose.

I think most people,

they're met with two choices here.

The un-confrontational choice which you did,

which was to try and laugh it off

and hopefully it doesn't rear its head again,

or you just say outright,

"That's out of order."

I can't believe he sent you that.

Heaven knows what Kirstine's builder was thinking,

but take a tip from me.

If your builder makes you feel uncomfortable like this,

it's a sure sign you're not dealing with a professional.

A decent contractor will only be offering you

a competitive quote and a competent job,

not a cosy dinner for two.

Remember, cowboy builders will try many things to gain your trust.

Flirting could be one of them.

And of course, if Kirstine was in any doubt

about whether she was dealing with a cowboy,

alarm bells definitely should have rung

when he announced he wasn't even going to be there for the build.

You weren't here to look after the builders

or to make sure they were doing the right thing.

-And the guy you employed to project manage was on holiday as well.

-Yes.

-You just had, like, four complete strangers in your house.

-Yes.

He told me not to worry about anything,

everything would be fine when I came back.

No problems, all the tradesmen had been down

to have a look at the job for their particular trade.

He told me not to worry about anything, and I believed him.

I do think Kirstine was a bit naive about things.

There's no doubt if she'd only called a halt

when she had the chance,

she wouldn't be in the mess she's in now.

I understand there's a legal battle,

or WAS a legal battle. What's the latest?

It's in the hands of the solicitors at the moment.

Who's going for who?

He's coming for me.

-He's coming for you?!

-Yes.

He's coming for me for his...

the remainder of the money.

-And you're going to fight it, I take it?

-Oh, yes.

You know, he's never accepted the fact that he's in the wrong.

That he's, you know, he's done this, basically. This was his job.

And there's little doubting that, whatever the whys and wherefores.

But one thing is for sure.

Our good guys have turned this top-to-bottom shambles

into a feast for the eyes.

Time for me to take a closer look.

Wow! Finished kitchen!

And you've got lovely new recessed lighting in here.

Looks like low-energy bulbs.

But then, before, you just saw bare plaster,

which wasn't any good anyway.

Now this is finished and nicely decorated.

There's a splashback along here, that looks nice.

Now, these are probably new worktops,

because before, they were already flaking, weren't they?

And this must be a new unit,

because you've now got a good bit of space round the fridge.

Let's not forget this is an electrical appliance

and it needs air circulating round it,

because the back could get quite hot.

Flaking worktops, poorly assembled fixtures and fittings, all sorted.

But that wasn't the end of the story in here.

What about that archway?

Now, I mean, the whole reason to try and create this space

is to get this dining kitchen, and you couldn't have it, really,

with a big arch in the wall, which hadn't been done properly.

But the big concern was the fact that

the arch hadn't been done properly,

hadn't been boxed-in or partitioned,

but yet, there was a load on it as well.

There was these hanging wall cupboards,

this big hood there as well.

You know, not an inconsiderable weight.

But, I mean...

oh, so it's all wired up,

it's all ready to go, and it looks fantastic, doesn't it?

I mean, I'm sure this is exactly what Kirstine had in mind.

The kitchen's definitely good to go. Let's check out the living room.

Right, OK, well...

this is more like a doorway you'd want to come into

when you come into your lounge. It's much wider.

This is all brand new, isn't it? Brand new door.

New architraving. It's completely finished.

Looks like our good guy builders have done all the decorating!

New skirting boards, which you can see here, actually. But here.

Well, that's what a stud partition should sound like when you knock it,

not hollow, so what they've done here,

they must have taken it all back, probably ripped it all out,

and then put the proper studding in there, proper noggins, and then

put insulation inside there, then the plasterboard, then skimmed it.

Yeah, much better.

Now, over there, that's where, that's where the doorway was,

that they had to block up.

They've had to rip all that out again, plaster it over

and also, as you can see, they've boxed in the unsightly pipework.

Now, this is your front room.

It looks like somewhere you'd want to spend time

watching telly and what have you. They're done a cracking job here.

What a difference! No half measures with our good guys.

They know how to do a proper job.

Time to meet the man that made all of this possible.

What were your thoughts when you first saw the job that lay ahead?

Given the timescales and given everything else,

it was going to be a task.

Primarily, the whole kitchen had to come out,

there were structural defects, that had to be sorted out,

and, obviously, we had a two to three week period.

You say the kitchen had to come out?

-We couldn't reuse a lot of the materials.

-Oh, really?

-When it came out.

-Like what?

The worktops were all defective, they all had to come out,

they all had to be renewed, door handles were put in the wrong positions...

-They're not cheap to replace either.

-No.

The door alone is about 75% of the unit and the door.

You did the electrics as well. There was a certain element of safety

-that you were in charge of.

-Yes.

Primarily, we make sure that the job gets put back correctly.

-It had to be signed off by an approved electrician.

-Yeah.

There was a lot of work.

A lot of work in the kitchen

and that doomsday book of bodges went right through into the lounge.

Literally. This room was a bit of a disaster, as well.

This was a stud partition wall put up. But not put up correctly.

Not put up correctly. It's a load-bearing wall.

The make-up of the wall is sterling board, plywood,

and then plasterboard on top. That hadn't been done.

Because it was an archway, they had just framed it up

-and plaster boarded it.

-Right.

-Not very well either.

-Any insulation in there?

-Absolutely none at all.

Well, there's no doubt our good guys had their work cut out,

but they've clearly played a blinder.

Before we embark on the grand tour,

I want to speak to Kirstine about her wayward cowboy builder.

Now, we always give the cowboy builders a right to reply,

to give us their version of events.

But when we contacted him, he became abusive straightaway.

-That doesn't shock me.

-And then referred us to his solicitor.

It doesn't actually surprise me that he hasn't replied to you.

What would you say to this cowboy builder,

if you were to see him on the street or in a safe environment?

I would walk away. I don't ever want to see him in my life again.

And who can blame her?

So, it's great to know that thanks to our good guys,

all traces of this bungling bad guy

have been banished from Kirstine's property.

Time to find out the difference it's made to family life.

So, your kitchen, it's lovely. It's really nice, isn't it?

-Yes, absolutely delighted with it.

-Look at you!

-You looked delighted, don't you?

-Yes, absolutely delighted.

-What a difference.

-Well, it works. It fits, it's finished.

-Exactly.

Just everything... everything is brilliant.

And Kirstine has every right to feel chuffed.

It's a complete transformation everywhere you look,

from ceiling to floor.

And what a floor it is.

Let's face it, you want a decent floor

because stuff gets dropped on the floor anyway,

but this is the thoroughfare out to the garden.

In the summer you'll have those double doors open, won't you?

Yes, yes, definitely.

Our good guys were asked to make this place safe, weren't they?

-Yeah.

-All your electrics are done now.

-That must be peace of mind at least.

-Yes.

Yeah, the worktops - a complete difference in them as well,

where they'd been cut, fitted, brilliant.

Brilliant, indeed. Kirstine now has the kitchen of her dreams,

a kitchen she can be proud of.

I'm happy with everything, 100% happy with everything. Definitely.

How do you feel about builders, per se, now you've had good and bad.

I'm very wary, the good builders that were here...

..very friendly, brilliant.

But yeah, I would be very wary to...

..have somebody in my house again that I didn't know. Definitely.

-You've got first-hand experience of comprehensive good work, haven't you?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Why would you go anywhere else?

-Exactly.

On to the living room.

At long last, what Kirstine always wanted

and it's finally ready for her to add her finishing touches.

So, I suppose the first place to begin with,

that door's obviously wider now.

Yes, plus the facings around the edge are a lot tidier looking.

The whole reason you started this project really

was to have a separate area.

You weren't using your dining room, were you,

-so you wanted a separate living area.

-Yes.

That's worked now, hasn't it, at long last.

It certainly has now, definitely.

I'm well pleased with what the good guys have achieved here

in a short space of time.

Especially with the knowledge that the walls are now safe as houses.

How different does it feel now that archway's blocked up?

Beforehand, I take it, the archway was blocked up,

-but you knew it was wrong.

-Uh-huh.

-So that must have been upsetting.

Yes, it was quite upsetting, but now

with it being painted and finished off, it feels different, yeah.

What I've learned from the good guy builders,

they didn't try and fix it, they started again.

Does that give you more confidence in the quality of your home now?

Definitely, 100% more confidence.

Confidence fully restored, it's time for me to bid farewell to Kirstine.

At last, she can concentrate on enjoying her home with her family.

Well. What a difference in a couple of companies of builders.

The bad guys, the cowboys, they took just over a week

to cobble together a kitchen, to pretty much do more harm

than good to this home.

The same job, it took our good guys over three weeks to complete.

But, now, at long last, we can see the difference.

The light and shade, if you like. The good guys,

what they've left this home looking is not only two rooms,

a living room and a kitchen that are fit for purpose.

A real sleek, stylish job that really sets this home apart.

For our next Cowboy Trap saga,

we revisit a home in Leamington Spa we first saw three years ago.

Like Kirstine, this couple made the mistake of ignoring their instincts

and pressing on with a builder about whom they had serious misgivings.

Meet Sangeeta and Rohit Prabhakar and their children, Dev and Bhavini.

The Prabhakars' dream was to create extra space in their home

to accommodate their growing family by building an extension.

We wanted... with the master bedroom, an ensuite

and now we wanted a new kitchen, new bathrooms,

so basically we were changing everything in the house.

Sangeeta and Rohit's home also needed a new roof

and the final item on their wish list, a landscaped garden

with decking area, so their children would have somewhere safe to play.

They commissioned an architect, who drew up plans.

It cost us a good six grand to get the whole thing designed

and we were ecstatic

when it got through planning permission.

With planning permission for their grand designs in place,

now came the crucial bit for Sangeeta and Rohit -

finding the right builder.

And they were spoiled for choice, because they found themselves

inundated by builders offering to do the job.

That was because when you submit a planning application,

it's a matter of public record

and your local authority has to publish all the details

for everyone to see.

And the thing is, most good builders are busy already

and don't need to go rooting around for work,

so be very wary of anyone who approaches you.

And guess what? That's exactly what happened to the Prabhakars.

We started getting letters from lots of builders, local companies,

companies from different parts of the country,

saying, "You put an application for extension,

"so we'll be more than happy to carry out work for you,"

and we invited a few builders to have a conversation.

Sangeeta and Rohit were impressed with one of the builders

that came to discuss the project

and when they did their own research, it seemed to back up

their positive first impression.

We checked the references, he had given us.

Everybody recommended him and they said he's a good builder

and he's worked for us and he's quite reliable and he's local.

And we asked him to show us some work.

Like, physically take us somewhere where he is working.

So he did take us to a construction site.

And that project seemed to be going well.

Satisfied with their checks,

the Prabhakars invited the builder to quote for the work.

He came up with a figure of £49,500,

including materials and labour.

He said the project would be completed in 16 weeks.

Sangeeta and Rohit gave him the green light

and initial impressions were positive.

He came with lots of people.

They were very regular.

They'd come around half eight and they'd be here until five o'clock.

But the Prabhakars' early confidence turned out to be misplaced.

Three weeks into the build and with their home

and garden in a state of disarray, their builder went AWOL.

He suddenly vanished.

He stopped answering the calls and, at that point,

he had stripped the roof off the front rooms of the main house.

And it was raining, it was pouring and all the water would come inside.

Every time it rained, the Prabhakars got soaked,

whether they were inside or out.

And the cowboy had converted

their back garden into a dangerous building site.

Sangeeta and Rohit were devastated.

They'd been left without a roof and a whopping £18,000 out of pocket.

They tried phoning and writing, but their builder never replied.

Then, almost two months later, there was an astonishing turn of events.

He came back.

He was like, "I'm really, really sorry.

"I went through a bad phase."

I had a good hint here that he's lying at some point.

But still, we thought, "OK. Let him come back. He'll finish the work."

The Prabhakars would live to regret giving him a second chance.

Over the next 12 months, they paid another £39,000,

but had little to show for it, apart from an unfinished roof,

an unplumbed bathroom,

dodgy pipework,

and cracks all over the walls.

Then, when he'd used up all of their money, he vanished again,

leaving behind a ruined home with no heating.

Sangeeta, Rohit and the kids were left living in one room.

We were paying a mortgage

for a house that was basically worth nothing.

The house was left with no roof, no stairs, no floors,

no electricity and no gas.

It was a complete wreck.

And, remember, Sangeeta and Rohit had taken out

a hefty loan to fund this work.

They ended up shelling out another 36 grand to new builders

brought in to complete their extension.

But even that wasn't enough money to sort out

the trail of devastation left behind.

Sangeeta and Rohit couldn't even let their children

out into the back garden, because it was so unsafe.

The decking was a disaster zone too.

The Prabhakars' dream project had become a never-ending nightmare.

Right, you know what happens next.

Our good guys swung into action.

Remedial work had fixed a lot of the problems inside the house,

so Sangeeta and Rohit asked our team to focus on the garden,

so the kids could go out and play again.

A mini digger was used to clear the ground,

regrade it and landscape it.

And this time, the good guy posse was a cast of thousands.

Students from the local horticultural college came

to lend a helping hand and what a cracking job they did, too.

The garden was totally transformed.

Perfect for the kids.

Then it was time to sort the dreadful decking.

The good guys were faced with this.

And they left it in fine fettle.

Our helping hands had got Sangeeta and Rohit's garden

and decking out of intensive care

and this failed building project well on the road to recovery.

The couple were now planning to take

legal action against their cowboy con artist.

But would they ever get any of their money back?

Only time would tell.

Now, Rohit and Sangeeta were in a right old state

when we rocked up with the good guys.

By sorting out their garden, we helped them out of the cowboy trap.

But that was back in 2010, so I'm fascinated to find out what's

been going on since, more than three years later.

'And I can't wait to hear if their legal proceedings

'against the builder were successful.'

-Hello, Sangeeta? I'm Jonnie.

-Hiya.

-How are you?

-I'm all right.

-You must be Rohit?

-Yeah, hi.

-Please come in.

-Thank you very much.

'Sangeeta and Rohit can't wait to tell me

'how much use the garden has been getting since our good guys left.'

This has all been bedded in now.

It's part of your family life now, isn't it?

Yeah, the kids been enjoying it really, really a lot.

This was carnage out here before, wasn't it?

Rubble all over the place.

It was a bomb site, basically.

'Well, that's putting it mildly.

'This is what our good guys had to contend with.

But, after they weaved their magic, much better.

And, three years on, it's clearly being put to good use.

You must have been very touched at the time

to have all these people helping you out.

Yeah. It is very different.

At one end of the spectrum, when somebody

nicks 60,000 out of your pocket

and I don't have the words for that.

And then people come in,

they've got nothing to do with us,

they don't know us and they do everything.

'Next, Sangeeta takes me to her new office,

'from where she's now running a successful travel agency business.'

-So this is where it all happens. The real engine room, then.

-Yes.

-That's my little office.

-It's great, though, isn't it?

It is, it is. It is lovely.

Our new builder, who finished the rest of the house, he did that.

It's still in process.

'Well, even if the travel agency nerve centre does need a bit

'more kitting out, the good news is business is booming.

'It's also fantastic that they found a local builder they can trust.'

He is quite busy at the minute.

We keep asking him, "Get some time out,

"please do our work as well."

You don't want to use another builder?

No, I don't think so.

-You found a good one, you're sticking to him.

-That's true.

And I can see why Rohit and Sangeeta are sticking to him.

He's done a cracking job on this office.

And, if Sangeeta's business continues to thrive, they'll be

able to afford to finish the roof renovation, which,

even three years on, remains work in progress.

Our good guys clearly revived the Prabhakars' faith in builders,

unlike that callous cowboy who treated them like a cash machine.

I want to ask Sangeeta and Rohit

why they gave this guy a second chance

after he vanished first time round with £19,000 of their money.

He just came back and said girlfriend had a major accident,

she had a hip replacement

and he was in the hospital all that time.

'The Prabhakars believed him, even though it turns out that

'just before he reappeared, they'd made a worrying discovery.'

It was basically on the internet

and it was a County Court Judgement

-against him for £20,000.

-OK.

And, by that time, we knew,

"Yeah, you know, we are in the wrong hands now."

You're in hot water.

I showed him whatever was there on the internet

that, "It's about you,"

and he said, "You won't believe what I'm going to tell you next.

"I had an identity theft and somebody's used my name

"and they've used my credit cards, bank accounts.

"It's the same person."

And he was literally in tears when he spoke about it.

We were too easy to trust people.

We had already paid him 19,000

and he hadn't done much work worth 19,000.

There was a chance that we lose that 19,000 if he runs away.

That's the thing. That's the worry, isn't it?

So we tried. "OK, we'll push him, we'll get the work done."

And we thought, "We are clever enough that we'll get the work done."

-So, you didn't want to say goodbye to the £19,000...

-No.

But, in order to get moving forward,

-you have to spend some more money?

-True.

'And that's how you get drawn into the cowboy trap.'

Take my advice...

Trust your instincts. Remember...

And, if you still have doubts, run for the hills.

Sangeeta and Rohit didn't do that and lived to regret it.

Now, on to the legal side of things,

and there's some good news and there's some bad news.

The bad news is the Prabhakars' legal action against the builder

was unsuccessful, because he declared himself bankrupt.

But, the good news is, with the help of their evidence,

Trading Standards took him to court

and he was jailed for fraud for 16 months

and, on his release, received a further humiliating punishment.

He's the first and only builder in the country to be issued ASBO.

-So he's the first ever builder in the UK to have an ASBO?

-Yes.

As regards to his own profession.

-He's not allowed to operate as a builder in this area?

-Yeah.

Wow. That...

How does that make you feel, then, Sangeeta?

He can't rip off anyone else locally like he has done, then.

Yeah. Fingers crossed, I think he can't any more.

He's a very crafty person. He changes his identity.

He doesn't say he's the same person. He's extremely crafty.

As indeed are many cowboy builders, ladies and gentlemen, which is why

we all need to be on our guard.

But, for Rohit and Sangeeta, all's well that will soon end well.

They are seeing their dream home coming together at last.

How do you feel getting Cowboy Trap involved helped you?

-We were pretty low at that time, weren't we?

-Yeah.

We felt really trapped at some point, like no help, nothing.

"We've lost the money."

And then it was when Cowboy Trap rang us up, it was like,

"OK. Somebody is there to help us out.

"Somebody's listening to us."

-Someone was on your side at last.

-True.

But it wasn't just someone, it was an army of people,

reviving the Prabhakars' faith in human nature in one fell swoop.

You could see the progress was there on a daily basis, rather

than there is progress and there's nothing again for ages together.

So you could see the difference.

And, you know, workmanship,

it basically speaks for itself, as well.

I wish you the very best of luck with your next project.

I also wish you the very best with your business.

Sounds like it's going great guns.

-Thank you.

-Good luck. Nice to meet you.

'And, with that, it's time to bid

'Sangeeta and Rohit a fond farewell.'

Well, as you can see,

the wounds that the cowboy builder inflicted here still run deep.

But justice, I think, was served, when the builder got a jail sentence

and the first ever ASBO handed out to a UK builder.

Now, I think Rohit and Sangeeta are genuinely moving forward. They have done.

These last three years, they've established a successful business

running from home, and the family are enjoying that lovely garden.

And hopefully, when they get a good builder to sort out the roof,

they can finally put to rest any memories of that cowboy builder for good.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd