Lincolnshire Trading Standards has secured a prosecution against a local builder for taking money from customers and carrying out little to no work on their premises.
Christopher Marshall, 44, of Melrose Way, Grimsby, conducted building work across Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire, under his business name CM Property Maintenance.
He requested deposits up front from his customers, claiming it was for materials. In some cases, he never purchased the materials and no work was ever done.
If any work was done, it was not completed and was left in that much of a mess, the customer had to pay someone else to rectify or complete it.
Mr Marshall never provided his consumers with any cancellation rights, which he has a legal requirement to do so.
Christopher Marshall pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud and, at Lincoln Crown Court on 16 August, he was handed a 12-month sentence 鈥� suspended for two years 鈥� as well as 180 hours of unpaid work.
Senior Lincolnshire Trading Standards officer, Kimberley Marshall, said:
鈥淲e are committed to tackling businesses that exploit the consumers of Lincolnshire. Whilst most businesses operate completely lawfully and fairly, there will always be some who take advantage of their customers to try and turn a quick profit.
鈥淔or some of the victims, it had taken them years to save up enough to have the work done. The fact that Mr Marshall took deposits from them knowing he was never going to do the work was unfair and unjustified.
鈥淲e will continue to work with our colleagues and partner agencies to combat businesses that take advantage of consumers and do not comply with the law鈥�.
If you have concerns that a business is acting in a way that it shouldn鈥檛, you can report this to Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer service. Visit or call 0808 223 1133.
Lincolnshire Trading Standards has recently joined the national Buy With Confidence scheme, to help prevent rogue traders taking advantage of residents like this. Businesses joined up to the scheme are vetted, giving customers reassurance they are contracting a Trading Standards approved trader.
If you would like your business to stand out from the crowd, and help stop rogue traders giving your trade a bad name, you can find out more about joining Buy With Confidence at .