‘Charming cowboy builder’ has devastated our town targeting TWELVE families & ‘stealing’ £60k… he took our dreams away
A COWBOY builder who has allegedly conned 13 families out of more than £60,000 has been blasted by his victims.
Scott Saxby is accused of taking huge deposits from innocent homeowners in Hastings, East Sussex, before carrying out shoddy work or disappearing.
On each occasion he has allegedly failed to complete the work, giving each family a depraved excuse as to why he had gone missing.
Mr Saxby is alleged to have told victims a number of excuses, including that he is suffering from mental illness, family bereavement and homelessness.
Jo Beattie, who lives with her partner Freddie and young child, was initially impressed after the builder completed a number of small jobs around their home in January last year.
The family hired him to carry out an extension of their kitchen and had gone so far as to recommend him to friends.
But they now claim he took a £16,000 deposit before leaving their home in a “shocking” state.
The family say Mr Saxby initially quoted £26,000 to cover the materials needed to carry out the work.
Following a three-week delay, he sent young men to dig a trench as preparatory work before he could get started on the kitchen itself.
The workmen spent a week digging a single trench, but the family claim they did not return.
They say Mr Saxby hasn’t been seen since.
Jo said: “He was here for several months on and off just doing little jobs, so we then asked him to do our kitchen extension.
“He took a £16,000 deposit and turned up for the first couple of days, then it was just a couple of young lads who worked for him – then no one turned up at all.
“We repeatedly tried to contact him to find out when he was coming back, but he claimed he was homeless, sleeping in his van and could not complete work.
“He left our house in a shocking state. Then we never saw him again. For a lot of people, we’ve heard he never even started the job after taking big deposits.”
Twelve other families in the seaside town claim to have endured similar troubles with Mr Saxby.
Ellie Williams, 41, lives with her partner Robbie, 36, and their two children.
The family bought a new home as a fixer-upper.
They claim they gave Mr Saxby more than £14,000 as a deposit to carry out an extension of their “tiny” kitchen and transform a garage into a workshop for carpenter Robbie.
The sum wasn’t questioned by the family because they’d asked for costly extras such as French windows and skylights.
They paid the deposit in May last year, thinking Mr Saxby would start the job three months later.
It has now been more than a year.
They say the job still hasn’t been started and claim to still be without their £14,000.
Ellie said: “It seems to be his modus operandi, to complete work for a family, get them to recommend him and give out his number before taking deposits and leaving.
“We wanted to extend our small kitchen into the garden and transform our garage into a workshop for my husband’s job as a carpenter.
“We never would’ve bought the house if we could not carry out the work and deliberately had money left over so we could.”
Alarm bells began to ring when Ellie says she became aware Mr Saxby had disappeared from Jo’s job without warning.
She said Mr Saxby told them he was living out of his car and promised to complete the job, but needed to delay its start date by a month.
However, the family claim he was just he was stringing them along.
Ellie added: “We told him we hadn’t been able to contact him so we wanted our money back or the materials themselves. It’s been more than a year now.
“We can’t afford for the work to be done now. The cost of living crisis hit just as we gave him the £14,000.
“We would have never brought this house if we couldn’t do the work. The kitchen is too small for me to cook a Sunday roast for the family, which is something we like to do every week.
“My husband’s work has been affected because he hasn’t got a workshop, so there’s also been a loss of income.
“We are not rich people, we work really hard. He took our dream away. It was supposed to be so happy and he turned it into something so stressful.”
A third alleged victim is Jon Djemal, who owns a fish and chip shop in the seaside town.
He said: “The guy is just something else. He used to come into the shop and said he would do some work that was needed for me.
“He did some little jobs to an okay standard, so I gave him another job helping to renovate a property.
“But then he took the money and never turned up to do it.
“Contractors were coming after me for money, but he had it. He never did the work and left it a s***hole – derelict from top to bottom.”
The victims grouped together and approached police, but claim they were informed the case was a civil matter.
Approaches were also made to Trading Standards, which launched a probe earlier this year.
However, the families say they were not spoken to during the investigation and Mr Saxby was only handed a warning.
Mr Saxby has been approached for comment.
An East Sussex County Council spokesperson said: “Following complaints received about Mr Saxby, East Sussex Trading Standards conducted a thorough investigation and as part of that process contacted all the known victims.
“On completion of that investigation, Mr Saxby was given a simple caution based on the facts and circumstances established during the investigation. Mr Saxby did not receive a warning.
“Simple cautions are an admission of guilt and form part of the offender’s criminal record.
“They may be referred to in future legal proceedings and may be revealed as part of a criminal record check.”