A rogue builder who took thousands of pounds from people he did work for and then left jobs unfinished has been given a suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay back more than £25,000 to his victims.
Matthew Carpenter’s 22 month prison sentence has been suspended for 18 months, and he also has to 120 hours community service after the prosecution by Bristol City Council ’s Trading Standards department, who began investigating numerous complaints about his company Dream Builds, in and around Bristol.
Three witnesses in the prosecution by Trading Standards said they hired Dream Builds to work on their homes, paid him the money and he left them with the jobs not completed.
“A home extension was left open to the elements when work completely stopped and on one occasion money that was taken from a homeowner for specific materials was spent on something else,” a spokesperson for Bristol City Council said. “Another victim was told to pay a large amount of money upfront so that the work could continue, but after Mr Carpenter received this money, he never returned to complete the job.
The 39-year-old, from North Somerset, was brought to court and at an earlier hearing back in June this year, he pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and to misleading consumers into agreeing to work that he could not do and failing to finish that work. His sentencing was deferred for six months to allow him time to pay back his victims, and he was brought back to court on November 28.
At that sentencing hearing, His Honour Judge Edward Burgess said the impact on the victims was ‘significant’, but he acknowledged that Carpenter had started paying them back, and there hadn’t been any other complaints about his work.
He ordered Carpenter to do 120 hours unpaid community service work, continue paying his victims back over the next three years, and handed him a 22 month prison sentence, which could be triggered if he commits another crime in the next 18 months.
The prosecution was welcome by Cllr Stephen Williams, the chair of Bristol City Council’s public health and communities committee. “This is another great result for our Trading Standards Team,” he said. “We are pleased that our efforts have provided more than £25,000 of financial recompense to the victims in this case and that justice has been served.
“Rogue traders cause financial and psychological distress to their victims and families, who lose their hard-earned savings on work that is unnecessary, poorly done or incomplete. This prosecution sends out a clear signal that rogue traders are not welcome in Bristol,” he added.