Rogue builder who conned customers out of £1.25 million jailed after leaving homes in "truly shocking" state

A builder who conned dozens of customers out of more than £1.25 million has been jailed. The rogue tradesman was said to have left homes in a "truly shocking" state, Bristol Crown Court was told.

Known most recently as Marc Cole, but who has a number of names including his birth name, Mark Killick, the 56-year-old dishonestly took payments from customers before spending it on himself - travelling the world in luxury and funding his gambling.

Footage captured the moment justice finally caught up with the serial fraudster, from Paulton, Somerset, as he was detained by cops. Following a 14-week trial he was found guilty of 37 counts of fraud and on Monday (December 22) he was handed a 14 year prison sentence for his crimes.

It is estimated the value of the work not done by Killick across his 37 victims was approximately £1,270,000. They spent a total of £1,473,191 with the company.

It was only when Killick received more than 100 complaints that he was subsequently charged with 46 offences of fraud by false representation between 2019 and 2021 - worth the equivalent of a ‘lottery win’, his trial was told.

Sentencing him at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Moira Macmillan told him he had caused "serious and ongoing" harm to his victims, leaving their homes in a "truly shocking" state.

Among his victims was Stephen Gledhill from Bristol, who told the BBC he had paid the fraudster £18k in advance for a new kitchen. He said after the case: "I just feel really shocked that he could go through with something like that, telling multiple lies to so many people."

The trial heard how Killick would request customers pay large sums of money upfront to enable him to pay for orders or materials. He then stressed to some customers they needed to pay their bills 'urgently' - but the court was told he was running a ‘ponzi scheme’ and effectively using that money to fund the work for customers who had paid him months before for jobs he had not completed.

Killick's company, TD Cole Ltd, began work for some of his customers, who would then see no progress for weeks or months at a time, even after having already spent tens of thousands of pounds.

The prosecution said the victims were in a weak bargaining position, because their house had been turned into a building site and they were left waiting for Killick to return calls and messages to explain when work would re-start. Therefore, if he asked for more money, they felt compelled to pay to avoid writing off their financial losses. Other customers paid Killick and TD Cole for work that was never even started.

Killick's victims were also unaware of the financial issues TD Cole Ltd was facing or indeed, his existing criminal record. Between 2008 and 2014 Killick was investigated and prosecuted twice for fraud offences relating to failing to complete building work after asking for deposits. In 2008 he was convicted under the name Killick and in 2014 under the name Mark Jenkins, which was his grandfather’s name. In the 2000s he was also declared bankrupt.

In January 2019, Killick changed his name by deed poll to Marc Cole and the following month created TD Cole Ltd - he told the jury this name change was for family reasons.

Killick was investigated by Trading Standards in 2020, following a series of complaints about the business. The investigation was subsequently referred to Avon and Somerset Police, who worked alongside the Crown Prosecution Service, to secure the 46 charges.

Killick chose to liquidate TD Cole Ltd at the start of November 2021 after building up liabilities he could not afford, but was continuing to take customers' money in the days before. He was arrested by detectives a few weeks later.

He told police during interviews he was starting a new company called Cole Design, which would be a sole trader, and that this business would have finished any unfinished TD Cole Ltd work. He said his arrest prevented that from happening.

The jury found Killick guilty of 37 counts of fraud by false representation (33 unanimously and four by majority verdict) and not guilty on one count. The remaining eight counts he was not convicted of.

Killick will be made subject to a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO) and will also be subject to a 15-year order disqualifying him from being a company director.

Detective Sergeant Louise Sinclair said after the case: “Mark Killick sold his customers a housing redevelopment dream. He left them with a nightmare and thousands of pounds out of pocket. It was fraud on an eye-watering scale.

“The change of name prevented any of Killick's customers who researched his credentials from seeing the media reports of his previous fraud convictions. He is a serial fraudster.”

DS Sinclair added: “He chose to lie time and time again, putting pressure on customers to hand over large sums of cash to secure orders for them, when he knew the money they were giving was not going to be used for their work at all.

"Killick was paying himself a commission for every job secured, and therefore some of the cash customers were handing over expecting to be paying for their construction projects and orders, was instead going to his personal account and being used on hotel stays and gambling.”