Episode 5 Cowboy Trap

Over the years, I've seen some real cowboy bodge jobs,

the stuff of nightmares, that would keep anybody awake at night.

He said, "If you think I'm giving you £45,000,

"I'd rather kill the pair of you first."

He actually threatened us, threatened our lives.

Today, I'm revisiting homeowners that got caught in a cowboy trap

by bungling builders who left them well and truly in the lurch.

Like I don't function properly.

It's on my mind all the time and it's just ridiculous.

I can't wait to see how their homes and their lives have moved on

since we got them back on track.

Tickle me tickly bits with a feather!

Wow! And I love the flooring.

-It's a kitchen to be proud of.

-Oh, yes, definitely.

And along the way, I'll be giving you some top hints and tips

in the hope it will prevent you from falling into the cowboy trap.

Today's Cowboy Trap is proof of one of the most important lessons

to be learned when getting work done on your home.

Be very wary of salesmen and builders who approach you to do the job.

Our two stories show how easily people can be lured in

by smooth-talking cowboys, empty promises to deliver their dream.

And as soon as these double-crossers are given some cash,

things rapidly become a nightmare.

He said, "The builders are behind because of the weather."

And I thought, "Weather? It's red hot."

It's something that's been worrying us for months, really,

that the whole thing was going to fall down.

Later, we're heading to Stafford

to visit sisters Julie Elsmore and Jackie Reece,

who were both taken in by a moonlighting salesman

who put the con into conservatory.

He was just a liar. He just...

See how I get. He just had our money and gone.

But first, a couple who handed over their life savings

to a silver-tongued builder who ran off with every last penny,

leaving them living in a death trap.

I'm back in the South London suburb of Blackheath,

home to the great and the good -

Sir Richard Branson,

the philosopher John Stuart Mill

and of course, Lee Ryan from the boy band Blue.

Now, despite its village-like friendly feel,

Blackheath has also been the haunt of a genuine bad guy,

as Cosetta and Kevin Lawlor know only too well.

Paramedic Kevin and his wife Cosetta

had been desperate to increase the size of their 1930s semi for so long

and it was eventually becoming a reality.

We were so excited,

we were going to get the little extension we'd always wanted,

have our own little kingdom downstairs.

Kevin and Cosetta's dream was to build an extension

that would give them open plan living and a luxury kitchen.

It took them ten years to save up the money, some £30,000,

and then they had to borrow 25,000 from the bank,

so where did it all go wrong?

Well, it started with an unsolicited e-mail.

We'd almost picked a builder,

but a circular arrived, saying if we were ready to go,

all the papers, all the documents were in place,

they were going to give us a bit of a discount

and they were going to take six weeks to do it

and that was so attractive, because everybody else had said 12 weeks.

On top of the promise of a fast turnaround,

the Lawlors fell for an all-too-common cowboy ploy.

They couldn't resist the discounted price of £36,910

and in the beginning, everything started off swimmingly.

We trusted them implicitly.

It was a good feeling between all of us,

and we couldn't wait to get it started.

They might have trusted their builder

but Kevin and Cosetta should have smelt a rat when they signed his contract,

which stipulated a massive £16,900 deposit up front,

followed by a whopping four grand payment every week

and wouldn't you know it? Just two weeks in,

there was an unwelcome surprise for the Lawlors.

The project manager, who's got all the plans and everything,

decides to go on holiday. No idea that he was going on holiday.

-Didn't tell us.

-So of course, everybody else who was left

had no idea of the plans. I kept giving them plans

and I found them on the floor or in the rubbish bin.

And the bogus builder saw the opportunity

to take even more of the Lawlors' money

when he heard about the £18,000 designer kitchen they were ordering.

He came back with a price of £13,000 for the kitchen,

which we thought was great, we could save a little bit more money,

and we gave him the money for the kitchen,

and he never ordered it, no order for a kitchen was placed.

The builder's enthusiasm for the job seemed to be flatlining

and when the Lawlors questioned him about the amount of money they were haemorrhaging,

their builder went from Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde.

God, just thinking about it, we kept, he kept phoning us up

-and he actually threatened you, didn't he?

-He did.

-He said, "I'm getting very, very angry, Kevin."

-Getting angry.

But the Lawlors weren't intimidated.

They demanded to see receipts

and the next thing they knew, their cold-blooded builder was gone.

Left with the bare bones of a downstairs,

Kevin and Cosetta were forced to live in their bedroom.

So in 2010, we turned up to give these two a lifeline.

I hear you've had some cowboy builders in the property.

-Yes, we have.

-Do you mind showing us around?

I can see it's still in a good state of disrepair.

It certainly is, certainly is, Clive.

OK, now, this is a wall that wasn't supposed to come down,

so I said to them, "Why have you destroyed a wall?"

And they said to me, "Because it was easier."

-It was easier?

-Yeah.

-OK. It was easier to take the wall down?

-I don't think it was.

-That's what they said.

No. OK, and this is what they've left behind, obviously,

with the acros supporting the wall,

because obviously, it is a supporting wall there

and just fingers crossed that the whole house doesn't collapse on it.

-It seems that way.

-So, that looks a mess.

What about the rest of the property?

Well, if we show you the extension that they've built us,

it's just block work, from what we can see.

If I'd put kids on this from kindergarten,

I think they'd have done a better job. I've got to be honest, it is that bad.

Kevin and Cosetta's builder had not only ruined their extension

but by taking out a supporting internal wall,

he'd caused real structural damage,

potentially putting their lives at risk.

After a bit of digging on this sorry excuse for a builder,

the Lawlors found out where their cash may have gone.

It was enough to take your breath away.

Did a trace on his car, and the day that he bought or acquired his car

-was the day Cosetta gave him the £13,000.

-Wow!

-Looking back in hindsight, which is a great thing...

-Mmm.

-You're giving that to a total stranger.

-Yes.

And since then, he's either sold the car

or transferred it into somebody else's name.

I've come across some real rats in my time on Cowboy Trap

and this builder ranks as one of the worst.

But luckily, Kevin and Cosetta had insisted on having a contract

with him, and they kept a record of all their bank transfers,

so decided to take this guy to court - and won.

But then, things took a turn for the worse.

It was given in our favour that he owes us £45,000.

The day he found out, he phoned me up, totally out of the blue.

He said, "If you think I'm giving you £45,000,

"I'd rather kill the pair of you first."

He actually threatened us, threatened our lives.

Terrifying. But even with the full weight of the law behind them,

the Lawlors couldn't get their 45 grand back

as the cowboy was untraceable.

So take a tip from us - watch out for contractors who approach you.

Good builders are usually busy and don't need to tout for work.

Keep your wits about you

and don't be taken in by cut-price deals or persuasive sales patter.

And make sure you see examples of the builder's work

before you hire them for the job.

Kevin and Cosetta hadn't just been ripped off.

Their house had been left a complete wreck by this shyster.

So cue our good guys, who erected a strong new load-bearing wall

in the downstairs kitchen.

It might not look glamorous,

but it was crucial to make their home safe again

and after we'd made a start,

we gave Cosetta a sneak preview of the progress.

-Wow!

-It's amazing, isn't it,

-what a good set of builders can do in a short space of time?

-Yes.

And although it's block work that we're looking at,

-how does it make you feel?

-It makes me feel great.

And those acro props will go, finally, thank God.

It's something that has been worrying us for months, really,

that the whole thing was going to fall down, so thank you.

We'd given Cosetta the peace of mind that the upstairs of her home

would stay just that - upstairs.

Not long after, Cosetta and Kevin

saw those acro props coming down again at last.

Yes! Come on!

-Great, look at that.

-Result!

-Wonderful.

-So what are your feelings now?

To have the house back, structurally strong again,

it's just amazing, amazing, because we can get on with things now,

we can start afresh again. It's brilliant.

Kevin and Cosetta's builder had taken their life savings

and driven off into the sunset.

And his parting gift was a home that was a danger zone.

But our good guys came to the rescue

and now the Lawlors could sleep soundly at night,

knowing their house was structurally safe,

but they still had a mountain of work to do here

to get the swanky open-plan living they always wanted.

It's been two-and-a-half years since I last saw Cosetta and Kevin,

when we made their home safe, but above all, structurally sound.

But when I left, they still had an enormous amount of work to do,

so I'm curious to see how the couple have got on in that time

and whether their dream of a kitchen extension has been realised.

Let's find out. Come on.

-Wahey, the door still opens outwards! How are you?

-Hello!

-Good to see you, Cosetta and Kevin.

-Nice to see you again, Clive.

It's been a long time since I was last here. Has a lot happened since?

-A lot has happened.

-Most of it.

We have the new extension finished, which we're really pleased about.

-We'd love you have a look, if you can.

-I want to have a look.

-That's what I've come back for.

-Good man.

-Come in.

-And a nice cup of tea, of course.

-Of course.

-OK, let's go.

We were about to see if the Lawlors now had the open-plan downstairs

they should have got from their cowboy builder in the first place.

But no-one was expecting this.

Well, tickle me tickly bits with a feather!

I'll tell you what!

-You like it?

-It's just...

We're so pleased.

-We're really pleased.

-I'm trying to get my head around this.

Now, this is the wall. Remember? The wall that you built.

-And I left you with just a block wall.

-Yes.

-Right?

-Yes.

But, brother, what a job!

Here, this building...

It was a shell, wasn't it?

It was, but it was an unsafe shell, if I remember rightly.

We've got tarpaulins up...

-Kevin had to pull it down, bit by bit, didn't you?

-Yes.

So you pulled it down.

By myself, and I put it all in a skip, and we had it taken away.

There was no way that even paramedic Kevin

could have saved the old ramshackle excuse for an extension.

Once torn down, a brand-new high-calibre build could be born.

You know, I'm loving the skylight and everything else as well,

that's giving you all this flood of daylight into your dining area

and it's just staggering, I mean, you've got to be pleased with it.

-Yes.

-You've got to be so proud of it.

The Lawlors' cowboy left them with virtually no kitchen to speak of

but what they've done is certainly food for thought.

We may have made this grim, grey structure safe,

but now, it's a stylish, stunning

and spacious open-plan kitchen living space.

But how did this couple turn it around?

Well, we knew we needed a lot more money, obviously,

to get it done again,

and we'd already remortgaged little bits to finance this,

-but Cosetta's brother...

-Bless him.

-Bless him. Bless him!

-He lent me a lot of money, with no interest.

He just said, "Give it back to me when you can,"

and that was it, that's how we did it,

-because we couldn't borrow any more money from the bank.

-Yeah.

Because they wouldn't let us!

You can see how well you've learned,

over that period since I was last here, and you've done an amazing job.

Now, have either of you got favourite areas of this new work?

I do! I do!

OK. And you're glancing towards it.

We have a little galley kitchen

and I used to hate the fact that I had to cook in there

and I couldn't talk to anybody.

Now I can cook and talk to people

and have a glass of wine and have a chat and it's lovely.

-It's a kitchen to be proud of.

-Oh, yes, definitely.

Sadly for the Lawlors, they were pawns in a nasty builder's game

to get as much money as he could for very little effort

but they drove that cowboy out of town. Checkmate!

Well, that is incredible.

From the two-and-a-half years ago when I was here,

Cosetta and Kevin were at their lowest ever ebb,

in fact, they couldn't have gone any lower. Look at them now -

it's like phoenix from the flames, they've risen. What a cracking job!

The Lawlors learnt that being drawn in by a builder

who approached them with the offer of a cheap, fast job backfired

and left the couple with burnt fingers

but Kevin and Cosetta aren't the only ones

to have fallen for smooth-talking sales patter.

Now we're heading to see not one but two ladies

who handed over a wad of cash to a slippery salesman,

only to be left with holes in their gardens

and even bigger holes in their bank accounts.

I'm back in Stafford for a double dose of cowboy carnage.

Two sisters, same road,

same cowboy, same old story.

Mum-of-three Julie Elsmore

and Jackie Reece, who's a single mum of two,

aren't only sisters, but neighbours as well.

Back in 2007, these birds of a feather decided to move

to the same street at the same time to be close together.

Julie was moving here with her husband

and I was going through a divorce,

and just decided I was going to live nearby her,

and so me and my children moved here.

And these two peas in a pod

both decided they fancied having conservatories built.

They wanted a bit more downstairs space, and a nice place

to relax in their homes, which were only two doors apart.

So Julie hunted for the right company and the right price.

I got lots and lots of quotes,

and I went to a firm, and he sent this gentleman out,

and he went through all the stuff with us,

you know, measurements, everything.

The salesman told Julie he could do her a special deal

but only if she didn't place the order through the company he was working for.

Instead, he would do it himself.

Now, that is a classic cowboy ploy

but Julie liked the salesman,

but she liked the price even more.

Undercutting other companies and the company he worked for,

the salesman offered the sisters a special price of five grand each

if they both got their conservatories at the same time.

He said he'd do us a deal because we were next door but one to each other.

We got all the builders, all the work done,

pretty much at the same time.

I trusted him. I mean,

he told us where he lived, his home phone number,

and he was a good salesman.

The sisters soaked up his sales patter

but as he was setting up a business for the first time,

Julie took the sensible step

of doing a few checks on him for peace of mind.

I phoned Trading Standards, to make sure they'd got no record of him,

and I phoned his home number and asked for him by name,

so I knew everything he said was true.

He may have checked out, but Julie had no way of knowing

if he'd honour his business promises. So here's a tip.

Be very suspicious of anyone

employed by a company who offers their services on the side.

By considering a tradesman who's not established,

you may not get a quality job or guarantee, should anything go wrong.

And don't forget,

jobs like building conservatories require specialised skills

which may be beyond the capabilities of your go-it-alone builder.

Which is exactly where Jackie and Julie went wrong.

Worse still, for one of them, the work was meant to be a lifeline.

When Jackie signed up for her conservatory,

she was recovering from cancer

and wanted a sun room to help her recuperate.

The salesman's deal won her over, just like Julie.

'We saved up for a long, long, long time.'

It was either doing the conservatory or doing the kitchen.

The conservatory was a better option, that's what we chose to do.

Six weeks after the initial quote,

the salesman called round to collect the 50% deposit.

He wanted £2,500 from each sister

to pay for materials that he said he'd already ordered.

That was a hefty lump sum, but the girls just wanted to get going.

And problems began instantly.

Work didn't start on the day it was scheduled.

Instead, the salesman sent out a so-called surveyor

who had some tall tales as to why the job was delayed.

This man turned up and he basically got a big pole

and he laid it on the ground

and just showed me how big the conservatory was going to be.

He also told me that the builders were running behind

because they'd been on a big job.

The surveyor told my sister a different story completely.

He said, "The builders are behind because of the weather."

And I thought, "Weather? It's red hot."

This is when alarm bells rang.

That's not exactly a surprise, and when work did eventually begin,

those alarm bells started to get even louder.

A builder came out and said he was doing the footings,

and he came out and he dug it all around, put everything on top,

and that's it. He went and left.

The salesman was not keeping his end of the deal.

The sisters had paid five grand between them

and all they had were holes in their lawns.

They decided they'd better take action.

I started to panic.

I was ready to start putting...not the scare on him,

but sort of say, "I'm going to a solicitor," and things like that.

And at first, it seemed the threat of legal action had worked.

The moonlighting salesman rocked up

with a new team of builders and the conservatories.

Jackie and Julie were over the moon

but were brought back down to earth with a bump.

The salesman came to speak to me and said,

"There's a problem with the price. They've doubled the price."

Turned out this complete charlatan of a salesman's price was so unrealistic

that no self-respecting builders would touch the job

and so, they weren't seen for dust.

The sisters had paid two-and-a-half grand each

and dust was pretty much all they had to show for it.

Julie was left with gaping holes in her garden.

She had no walls, no windows, and no roof.

This certainly wasn't the conservatory she'd been promised.

It was just an eyesore in her back yard

and it was the same story round at Jackie's.

This was my patio, which should be a conservatory.

He's left all the slabs for me

and that's it, really.

I can't use my patio doors,

I've not able to use those throughout the summer

for the mess they lead out onto.

It's just awful. I don't come out here.

What a disgrace. All Jackie wanted was somewhere to recuperate

after her illness with cancer

and both sisters were left living a nightmare.

Just a liar. He just...

See how I get. He just had our money and gone.

We can't do nothing with it. I've got no money left.

I don't like looking at it, to be truthful.

It was high time someone sorted out Julie and Jackie's backyard blues

so in 2010, we stepped in.

-Hi, I'm Clive from Cowboy Trap.

-Hi. Come on in.

-Thank you.

We wanted to know how both these sisters fell for this bad bargain.

I'm sure at the back of your mind, both of your minds,

you must have been thinking,

"Well, what are we going to get for five grand?"

-Because that is mega cheap.

-Well, what he actually told us,

he said he wanted us to refer him to friends and family,

so he told us he was doing it at cost.

He wasn't going to make any money on it himself, which...

That sort of took away the too-good-to-be-true bit, really.

In fact, everything about this guy was too good to be true.

When Julie contacted the company he said he worked for,

a bombshell was dropped.

I said, "We've got a complaint about him," or something like that.

And they said, "What did he look like?" And I described him.

They said, "He only worked here for two days."

So he used their company as a front for two days?

And I just dropped on the floor, completely.

What a rat! Julie and Jackie had been well and truly conned.

Time to call in the good guys,

who served them up not one but two new conservatories

from the a la carte conservatory menu.

And as quality doesn't come cheap, the sisters put the money

they had left towards paying for the materials needed.

Sweeping away the reminder of the botch jobs their cowboy conman had left them,

Julie was up first to see what we'd done.

Link arms.

Let's go.

All right? And stop.

Have a look.

It looks absolutely fantastic from the outside.

It does, yes.

-Is this what you were hoping for?

-Mmm.

The good guys had excelled themselves here.

Oh, God!

-Looks beautiful, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-I'm really loving that.

-Oh, it's fantastic.

While Julie enjoyed her swanky new space,

we nipped over to Jackie's for her big surprise.

OK, you can remove your hands now.

Wow! It's fabulous.

Absolutely fabulous.

Julie and Jackie's slippery salesman ran off with their money

and left them with trenches in the garden, piles of rubble

and no sign of the conservatories they'd paid five grand for.

But our good guys changed all that,

giving them both stylish conservatories

with exposed brick walls, vents,

insulated floors

and chic Edwardian-style roofs.

Tip-top job.

So it was time to get the sisters together and celebrate.

-What do you think?

-I think we want a drink.

-They're gorgeous, aren't they?

-Getting a drink.

-Get the drink out!

Listen, girls, enjoy your conservatories, yeah?

It's been a long, hard road for you, and a painful one as well,

but enjoy it.

So thanks to Cowboy Trap,

Jackie and Julie had the conservatories of their dreams

but would they see any of their money again?

We sure hope so, because if anyone deserved a really happy ending,

it was these two.

It's been over two years since I last met two lovely sisters,

Jackie and Julie.

And I'm really keen to catch up with them,

because when last we met, they had every intention

of pursuing their so-called builder through the courts

and I'm intrigued to find out how they got on

and also, how those conservatories are looking today.

Come on.

First up, we're dropping in at Jackie's.

-Well, well.

-Hello.

-Good to see you again.

-Come on in.

-Do you mind if I come in?

-There's a lot gone on.

-Great! That's what we want!

We were champing at the bit

to see what Jackie had done to the conservatory we built her.

-A-ha!

-Come on in.

Now then, now then, now then, now then. Now.

Wow.

Lots of things have changed.

-You put a few knick-knacks in.

-Bits and pieces, yeah.

-Sofa.

And I love the flooring.

-That's all your idea?

-Yeah.

What a great job.

Having re-plastered a wall and added personal touches,

Jackie's turned the bare conservatory into a cosy habitat

she and her little troupe of Nellies are happy to call home.

Good to see you again. Let's go.

But has sister Julie done the same with her space?

A-ha, so again, changes.

You've got the blinds in, carpet down,

and as I say, they just look fantastic, don't they?

So now you've got a feature wall, with wallpaper, very nice too.

You've got radiators in as well!

Generally, girls, are you happy with what you got?

-Yes.

-Very happy.

-That's the main thing.

-Yeah, love it.

Just like her sister, Julie's made her conservatory

a truly comfy and personal space to enjoy.

What an achievement -

not just one success but two.

And since we were last here, this plucky pair have had a long battle

taking their slippery salesman to court.

But it paid off. They won,

and he's been made to pay them back every last penny.

So how did they do it?

It was never in my mind, ever, not to pursue him.

He never denied anything.

So he was almost putting his hands up

-and going, "You know what, I'm culpable for this"?

-Yeah.

How much have you had back?

-1,100, haven't we, altogether?

-Yeah.

-About 1,100.

-1,100 each?

-Yeah.

I have to ring him every single month to remind him, every month.

I don't care if it takes me the next ten years.

How on earth did you have the strength?

Where did you muster it from?

I don't know, just fighting for it.

-It's principle.

-You have been like a dog with a bone. Well done.

Yes, it's definitely down to Julie,

because I think, if it had been me on my own, I probably would have...

-Yeah.

-..given up by now.

I doff my cap.

I think you ladies have been outstanding.

These girls are a total inspiration,

truly sisters doing it for themselves.

It's took over two years to get where they are today,

and possibly another two years

before they're going to be able to put this cowboy builder behind them.

But I've got a message for all you cowboy builders out there -

you won't want to come across homeowners like these too often

and we're keeping an eye on you too. We're coming to get you.

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