A rogue builder, who destroyed the homes of his customers, as well as taking all their savings, has been sent to prison for more than five years.
Lee Slocombe, who ran his Swansea-based building company – Kamlee Builders, appeared in Swansea Crown Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to defrauding seven families out of more than £147,000.
All the families paid huge sums of money for building work that was either not needed, not completed or finished well below standard.
One of the families, from Swansea, paid out more than £78,000 for work and for rectifying problems caused by the builder. They described the impact it has had, stating they had gone into financial meltdown and needed to take out several loans to pay off the bill.
Another couple paid more than £18,000 for work which a chartered surveyor testified would have normally cost less than £600 and taken an hour to complete.
Mr Slocombe, 40, from St Thomas, took money from all the families, including vulnerable people and has previously been imprisoned for similar activities in 2015.
The actions of Mr Slocombe came to the attention of Swansea Council’s Trading Standards in 2018 after receiving a complaint from a concerned family member about work being carried out at a property in Morriston.
The complaint involved a family that had been quoted £1000 for works to rectify damp at their property. This work eventually escalated to a bill of more than £60,000 and left the property in a complete mess.
Further complaints by other homeowners in Swansea in 2018 prompted visits by trading standards officers, who determined work had been carried out to a substandard quality.
Trading Standards officers continued to investigate complaints linked to the building company between 2018 and 2020. The investigations led to charges being made against Mr Slocombe.
In Crown Court on May 9, a judge sentenced Mr Slocombe to 5 years, 5 months in prison for one count of participating in a fraudulent business. He was also disqualified from being a company director for 8 years.
David Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Performance in Swansea Council, welcomed the sentence.
Cllr Hopkins said: “The details of this case show an extremely disturbing level of dishonesty and appalling treatment towards families in Swansea, many of them who are vulnerable.
“The families who got taken in by Mr Slocombe’s dishonest behaviour have all paid a huge price financially as well as suffering stress throughout their ordeals. They believed he was acting in their interests and would carry out work honestly. We now know this was not the case and the builder did all he could to extract huge amounts of money from these families dishonestly.
“Our Trading Standards and Legal Teams have done an excellent job in bringing this case to court and ensuring no other families will suffer at the hands of this rogue builder.
