Rogue Builder Left Our Roof Leaking and Spent £30K We Gave Him in Lanzarote

BUCKLEY, FLINTSHIRE — Shelley Sawkins, 75, made the phone call that would confirm her worst fears. She had already watched the building work on her extension grind to an inexplicable halt. Now, hearing background noise that was unmistakably not the sound of a construction site, she realised the tradesman she had entrusted with tens of thousands of pounds was in Lanzarote — spending her money on holiday while her home was left exposed to the elements. "We paid the first instalment. The work started, and then just stopped," Shelley said. "Then we saw he was in Lanzarote on holiday with our money. He would disappear for weeks and then come back with excuse after excuse."

The builder, Christian Williams, 54, is now serving a two-year prison sentence after admitting one count of theft and three counts of fraud by false representation involving four families across Flintshire. But for his victims, the prison term provides cold comfort. At a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing earlier this month at Mold Crown Court, the court heard that Williams, trading as Chris Williams Construction, had benefited to the sum of £163,051.70 from his offending. His available assets, however, meant he could repay just £1. The families he defrauded will recover almost nothing.

A Trail of Devastation Across Four Families

Shelley and her husband Barry, 63, had hoped the extension would make their lives easier, providing a spacious kitchen area in their bungalow in Buckley. Barry suffers from Alzheimer's disease, and Shelley is his primary carer. Instead of the improved quality of life they had planned for, they were plunged into a nightmare. The first sign that the work was substandard came when one of the newly built walls began to wobble when pushed. Then, one night after the roof had been worked on, rainwater began pouring into the house. "I was up in the middle of the night collecting water in buckets while trying to look after my husband," Shelley recalled. "I didn't have enough buckets. I was in tears. I was constantly in tears. It was a nightmare."

The couple ultimately spent £50,000 rectifying the botched job — nearly £30,000 more than the initial quote of £21,000. Approximately £30,000 was paid directly to Williams, with the remaining £20,000 going to other builders tasked with repairing the damage he had caused. But major problems persist, including uneven flooring throughout the extension. The experience has been so traumatic that the couple are now desperate to leave their home entirely and move into sheltered accommodation. "We're sitting in an extension that's still not properly completed," Shelley said. "The flooring isn't level, parts of the work were never finished, and we've spent years dealing with the consequences. I just wanted to run away from it all. It affected every part of our lives — our health, our home, and our future."

The Eddon Family: A Father Forced to Become a Builder

Dave Eddon, 42, and his wife Claire had commissioned Williams to build a two-storey extension to their home in Higher Kinnerton, Flintshire, where they were raising three young children — a one-year-old baby and toddlers aged two and four. Williams had assured them the project would take approximately four months and cost £100,000, with work commencing in September 2022. The early signs were encouraging: significant progress was made in the first two weeks. Then the momentum evaporated. Over the subsequent four months, barely anything was accomplished. Williams cycled through a litany of excuses — he was on holiday, tradespeople were unavailable, supplies had not arrived.

Dave had already paid more than £56,000 in instalments when Williams abandoned the job entirely the following February. The couple discovered that other contractors refused to take on a half-finished project, leaving them with no alternative but to complete the work themselves. Dave took on the project management and much of the physical labour, spending a further £60,000 and ending up £16,000 out of pocket. "The project management was a significant drain at a time in my life where I wanted to be spending as much time as possible with my young family," Dave said. "However, it was the only option I had to get out of the horrendous situation that he left us in." The strain took a severe toll on Claire, who suffered "significant mental and physical symptoms" including insomnia, heart palpitations, panic attacks, and prolonged episodes of crying.

Mark Barber-Riley: A Disabled Grandson Left Waiting

A third victim, 75-year-old Mark Barber-Riley from Holywell, had employed Williams in March 2022 to build a downstairs bedroom for his disabled grandson. The project was supposed to be completed by August of that year. By January 2023, it remained unfinished. When Williams claimed he could not find any workers to complete the job, Mark took the initiative and sourced an electrician himself. Williams agreed to pay the electrician — but then contacted Mark to confess he had no money. Mark had already paid Williams £44,000. He was forced to spend an additional £20,000 to finish the work without him. The callousness of the deception was matched only by its financial consequences.

Throughout the period of his offending, Williams had been posting photographs on Facebook documenting holidays and days out at the races — a public display of the lifestyle funded by the life savings of the families he was simultaneously defrauding. The disconnect between his curated social media presence and the leaking, unfinished extensions his victims were living in captures the particular cruelty of the fraud.

Regulatory Failure and the Call for Licensing

Williams's company, Chris Williams Construction, had been a member of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), a trade body that vets its members and provides a complaints mechanism for consumers. The FMB confirmed it permanently removed the company from its website in March 2023 after an investigation. The organisation had initially placed the firm under a monitoring process after receiving a first complaint. When a second complaint concerning delays and incomplete work was lodged, a formal investigation was launched. The results were placed before a committee that included trading standards officers, who determined that expulsion was warranted. "Despite our best efforts, including onsite inspection of work, financial vetting and 10 additional background checks, a very small minority of members fall below the standards we expect," an FMB spokesperson said, noting that only 2% of jobs undertaken by its members result in a complaint.

The case has reignited calls for mandatory licensing of builders in the United Kingdom, a reform the FMB has long advocated. Currently, anyone can legally operate as a builder in the UK without any formal qualification, accreditation, or licence — a regulatory gap that leaves consumers exposed to precisely the kind of predation Williams perpetrated. Earlier this year, the Department for Business and Trade said it supported the TrustMark scheme, which helps consumers identify reputable tradespeople and provides a mechanism for redress when work fails to meet required standards. For the families whose homes and lives were torn apart by Christian Williams, such reforms, however welcome, come years too late. The £1 he has been ordered to repay stands as a bleak monument to the inadequacy of the remedies available to those who place their trust — and their savings — in the wrong hands.

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