‘A veil of lies’: ‘Builder’ scammed homeowners out of £1m and destroyed homes to fund gambling habit

One of Richard Nicholls’ victims suffered panic attacks while heavily pregnant with her first son, while an elderly woman had to find somewhere else to live for three years while her house was fixed

(Southwark Council / SWNS)

A fake builder scammed 11 people out of more than £1 million and left families with wrecked homes to fund his gambling habit.

Richard Nicholls, 38, left his victims with unfinished extensions and carried out shoddy home improvement work before asking them to pick up the bill.

He has now been jailed for three years after the fraud left some victims without anywhere to live and having spent their life savings.

The estate agent and salesman had no experience in construction when he started taking on the building work.

One woman suffered panic attacks while heavily pregnant with her first son, while an elderly woman had to find somewhere else to live for three years while her house was fixed.

Nicholls was caught after his customers told trading standards officers he would take money from them upfront for work that was never completed and in some cases never even started.

The rogue builder, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, ran four companies when he carried out the fraud over two years and 10 months between February 2016 and December 2018.

The costs to his victims - many of whom were in south London - included the expense of putting the work right.

Nicholls blew £52,000 of the £1.1m scammed from victims on his gambling habit, Southwark Council said.

He also took money in advance of carrying out the work, services and materials that he never bought or paid for, the authority said.

Sub-contractors would often harass customers for payment because Nicholls had not paid for their work either.

He told one client who had already paid him £90,000 that he would only be able to finish their job when he received funds from a new client for another project.

This same client had to spend a further £150,000 to correct and complete Nicholls’ work because the foundations laid were only half the depth they needed to be.

Building work on another family’s kitchen overran again and again, forcing them to live in their living room, with just a microwave to cook meals. The work was never finished.

One victim, Owen Rees and his wife, from Camberwell, southeast London, saw their home wrecked when their extension wall was built over their neighbours boundary and their bathroom was ripped out without permission.

The couple saw their costs double to over £110,000, despite agreeing a price of £60,000 with Nicholls before the work started in August 2017.

He said after Nicholls was jailed: “It really doesn’t feel like five years ago that Richard Nicholls came into our lives and ultimately ruined them for a substantial period of time.

“His lies, deceit, and total lack of moral compass left my wife and I emotionally and financially traumatised.

“Meeting the group of other families and couples Richard had conned was cathartic to a degree and harrowing across the board [we weren’t even the worst affected].

“Towards the end of our dealings with Richard Nicholls, the stress caused by his greed and sheer ineptitude as a building contractor caused my wife to suffer panic attacks while heavily pregnant with our first son.

“Despite me pleading with him at the time to make right his wrongs and telling him what we were going through, he disappeared into thin air.

“We had to borrow the money stolen by Richard from our family to complete the job, which ultimately meant selling the house and leaving London to pay back the loan.

“Had we not had this support, we would have lost everything.

“I would describe dealing with Richard as the darkest period in our married life and one we’ll never forget.

“What upset me almost more than being conned was the total lack of remorse from Richard. He blamed everyone but himself and then disappeared.”

Dr Anne-Marie Sim, another victim from Finsbury Park, north London, said her elderly mother spent three years of her life in limbo while the work on her home - that she used her life saving on - was being carried out.

She added: “The aftermath was incredibly stressful. The financial impact was huge - but beyond this, the impact reached into all aspects of our lives.

“The house was unliveable, with gaping holes everywhere.

“My elderly mother spent three years of her life in a sort of limbo while this was going on - living in a distant part of town far away from friends, with all of her possessions still in storage.

“Getting the house fixed required using her life savings and taking out a loan, which put huge financial pressure on the family for the next few years.

“The fact that Nicholls has done this to others shows that he has no regard for the immense distress his actions have on other people.

“We believe that a strong sentence is the right outcome given the long-lasting trauma that his actions have had, and we hope it will deter him from doing the same thing to others in the future.

“We are extremely grateful to the team at Trading Standards for their hard work in bringing Nicholls to justice today.

“Bringing Nicholls to justice is something we wouldn’t have been able to do ourselves, and he would most likely have carried on doing the same thing to other people - which shows how vital Trading Standards’ work is.”

When customers complained about the poor progress of the work, Nicholls claimed he had family difficulties and personal problems, and even told one family he was going blind.

When questioned by police, he admitted having no formal building work qualifications and said his background was in estate agency and sales.

At Inner London Crown Court on Friday (Dec 23), Nicholls was caged for three years after admitting one count of fraud and three counts of fraudulent trading.

Handing down the sentence, a judge told him he had engaged in “egregious offending” and banned Nicholls from being a company director for six years.

The fraud charges covered a string of fake claims and fraudulent business activities by Nicholls or companies he ran.

These included claiming work could be done to a competent and professional standard and taking goods and payment for services that were never provided.

He also claimed to be able to take on specific projects, but failed to finish them despite them already being paid for, as well as claiming the cost of VAT on invoices when he was not registered for VAT.

Nicholls also did not tell customers about their legal right to cancel contracts made at home, Southwark Council said.

Councillor Dora Dixon-Fyle, Southwark Council’s cabinet member for community safety, said after the sentence was handed down: “I am pleased that the courts recognise the seriousness of the crimes Nicholls committed.

“The prison sentence also reflects the terrible impact his failures had on his clients.

“This case highlights how important it is for trading standards to tackle fraudulent behaviour, which too often impacts on vulnerable people.

“I congratulate our trading standards officers for their determination in bringing this man to justice and thank all involved in the investigation.”

The scale of the investigation was such that Southwark received support and funding from National Trading Standards (NTS), who also helped take witness statements from Nicholls’ many victims.

Trish Burls, chair of the National Trading Standards Tri Regional Investigation Team said Nicholls “preyed on his victims under a veil of lies”.

She added: “Nicholls preyed on his victims under a veil of lies, false claims and deceit.

“He deliberately misled people into agreeing to home improvement works that he was not qualified to carry out, leaving victims distressed and out of pocket by tens of thousands of pounds.

“This sentence sends a clear message that, in the long-run, fraudulent trading does not pay - instead, it ends behind bars.

“Nicholls, who is currently a director of a Cheshire based estate agency company, promised to pay back all his victims, but has so far failed to do so.”