Rogue builder jailed after families lose more than £1m fixing ruined homes
A rogue builder who took more than £700,000 from 13 families before leaving homes flooded, unfinished and structurally unsafe has been jailed, with his victims facing total losses of more than £1 million.
A callous rogue builder who conned more than a dozen families out of hundreds of thousands of pounds before abandoning their homes in ruins has been locked up.
Patrick Damien Hartley, 52, swindled 13 households across Greater Manchester and Lancashire out of more than £700,000. Overall, his victims lost more than £1m after being left to fund massive repair bills.
The rogue trader left properties half-finished, drenched by rain and structurally unstable, before declaring himself bankrupt. Shocking footage captured extensions left as exposed shells, water cascading through ceilings and scaffolding propping up unfinished walls.
Hartley was sentenced to three years and nine months’ imprisonment at Preston Crown Court on August 28. He admitted six counts under the Fraud Act 2006 and three offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
He was also handed a seven-year criminal behaviour order banning him from running any business involved in private building work, and faces confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Among his victims was Phillippa Edgar, 48, from Poynton, Stockport, who handed Hartley roughly £95,000 for extensions that were never completed. She was forced to spend another £89,000 on remedial work.
Phillippa said: "This was supposed to be our dream home - but it became far from it.
"The situation was extremely stressful and extremely upsetting, it strained everything from my children's school lives to my marriage.
"Hartley is a conman who knew what he was doing - lie after lie was told about why work wasn't complete.
"He then just left the extensions as two brick shells - and stole our hard-earned money.
"He left our roof open to the rain, which flooded into our house to the point we set up a pump to suck as much out as possible.
"Hartley is a horrid man who deserves to rot in prison."
In Failsworth, Oldham, 42-year-old Joanne Dagostina paid him £64,216 for an extension and kitchen, only to learn steel supports had been omitted, leaving the building at risk of immediate collapse.
Joanne said: "The blatant lack of care and disrespect to put my family in danger is unforgivable.
"The engineer told me the extension ceiling was failing by 200 per cent and to acrow prop it as soon as possible.
"He said it would collapse if we didn't and if it did it would take the next-door neighbours with it - I was furious.
"I am disappointed with his sentencing as to me it was premeditated and he knew how to take advantage."
Pelin Akin, 49, and Wellington Tsang, 55, from Sale, Trafford, lost more than £105,000 after paying him £47,500 for a loft conversion, leaving them with no roof and an empty attic.
Pelin said: "The excuses he gave for the work not being completed were ridiculous - they included his workers being drunk and his and the van needing its MoT.
"Hartley started with being very accommodating.
"But when we started challenging him for why he wasn’t on the site his messages became more threatening.
"My work suffered, I was signed off with stress.
"I added lots of cameras and security to our home just in case he or his representatives decided to visit us.
"I am starting to relax knowing that he is behind bars.”
In Bacup, Lancashire, a couple trying to arrange end-of-life care for an elderly mother were left stranded without heating or hot water when Hartley failed to finish her extension, forcing her to spend her final days in a front room.
Councillor Joshua Roberts described Hartley as "one of the most prolific and heartless fraudsters" the local authority had ever encountered.