Cowboy builder Kyle Muir admits fleecing customers out of £48,300

Kyle Muir pleaded guilty on Tuesday afternoon to seven charges under the Fraud Act 2006 for work he had failed to finish under the auspices of three companies he ran.

Great Yarmouth Magistrates' Court heard Muir, 26, had come to the attention of Norfolk Trading Standards after he had been hired under Diamond Standard Renovations to carry out a two-storey extension at a home in Belton.

The gas pipes had been built into the cavity wall at Vicki Mileham's home (Image: Archant)

Muir, of Albany Road, Great Yarmouth, left the work unfinished and due to the state of the uncompleted extension it had to be levelled on health and safety grounds.

Leona Page, prosecuting on behalf of Trading Standards, said the Heather Gardens home belonging to Vicki Mileham had been left with a sagging roof, unsafe boiler works and exposed electrical cables, among other faults.

The work is still to be completely rectified.

The sagging roof of the Belton home Kyle Muir had been contracted to work on (Image: Archant)

The court heard Muir had sent aggressive messages to another customer and had left their work unfinished.

Then, trading under Better Home Improvements, Muir had been asked to carry out a kitchen extension in Hethersett.

He had left the work incomplete and had damaged the property's roof and left "deep unsecured holes" which posed a danger to children. It had cost £17,000 to rectify the work.

With another Great Yarmouth customer he had failed to tell her there was a legal 14-day cooling off period and had added VAT to the bill, even though he was not registered for it.

He had also claimed the company was an approved business under the Trustatrader.com scheme, when it fact it was not registered.

His final business called the Cladding and Roofing Company had taken money for work that was never started in Bradwell and Hingham.

The house in Belton still needs the work rectifying (Image: Archant)

The offences took place between October 2019 and June 2021 and Muir had not paid back any of the £48,300 he took.

After pleading guilty, magistrates sent his cases to Norwich Crown Court for sentencing.

He is due to be sentenced at a date to be fixed alongside Reece Lloyd, of Western Road, Gorleston.

In December Lloyd pleaded guilty to one offence under Unfair Trading Regulations of knowingly or recklessly engaging in a commercial practice that contravened professional diligence.

That charge related to the work at Belton, when Lloyd had also run Diamond Standard Renovations.