Norwich builder branded 'con man' jailed for dodgy work

Christopher Escrader, 35, who ran several companies, swindled six victims out of a combined total of £278,000 during his campaign of lies.

A Costessey family's bid to build a garden home for their elderly mother was one of his projects that turned into a disaster after they paid £43,000 only to see him leave the job incomplete and with a litany of problems.

Sam Elmhirst paid £43,000 to build a lodge in her garden but it went badly wrong and her mum has no way to get the money back (Image: Newsquest)The lodge left unfinished and inhabitable in Sam's Elmhirst's garden in Costessey (Image: Newsquest)

Artist Sam Elmhirst was told after an inspection by South Norfolk Council that the lodge could not be lived in, with £37,500 of work needed to fix Escrader's building mistakes.

READ MORE: How a £43,000 granny annexe in this Costessey garden turned into a nightmare

Escrader, of School Lane, Little Melton, near Norwich, has now been jailed for three years after admitting four offences of fraudulent trading.

He was also banned from being a company director for seven years.

Recorder Edward Renvoize told him: “You have stopped being a businessman and have become a con man."

VICTIMS LEFT WITH HALF-FINISHED SHELLS

Chelmsford Crown Court heard Hudson Garden Rooms Ltd, one of his companies which most of his victims used, went into liquidation but he continued to trade and take payments.

Many of his victims were in Essex where trading standards launched an investigation in 2019 after receiving numerous complaints.

The court heard he would visit potential customers and create 3D drawings of the dream builds, with prices ranging from £20,000 to £108,000 for the projects.

Christopher Escrader has been jailed for three years after admitting four offences of fraudulent trading (Image: Linkedin)

Escrader would then set out installation dates and collect 90pc of the payment before any work even started on site.

Promised start dates were delayed and construction would begin but then slow or cease.

Victims were left with half-finished shells and non-ordered products before later finding incorrect materials had been used.

Hudson Garden Rooms' website had boasted it gave customers "everything from site inspection through to decoration and landscaping. Our service includes… all the support you need to ensure the building is complete and ready to move in".

The glossy website of one of Escrader's companies, Hudson Garden Rooms Limited, but the reality failed to live up to the promises (Image: Newsquest)

However, customers discovered they had paid up to £7,500 for planning permission and building control approval, despite no applications being made.

The six victims included in the prosecution paid more than £278,000 to Escrader for shells, incomplete builds and, in one case, no work at all.

Collectively, they had to fork out about £150,000 to rectify the work to a finished state.

'A COMPLETE NIGHTMARE'

Among those left unhappy was Alan Street, from Hornchurch, who paid £44,000 for a botched extension job.

Unknown to him, the company had gone into liquidation with debts of almost £400,000 by the time he paid a deposit in December 2018.

"They didn't even bother to get building regulations," he said. "To all intents and purposes they disappeared."

Alan Street on his abandoned extension in Hornchurch (Image: Newsquest)

READ MORE: Complaints flood in about firm which left artist with £43,000 garden nightmare

After he botched work on her family’s project in Costessey, Ms Elmhirst tried to take the firm to court but it folded with almost £400,000 of debts – meaning she could no longer pursue the case.

But Hudson Garden Rooms continued to trade online with the same website and name.

Ms Elmhirst said she felt the liquidation system was being abused and her experiences with the builder had been “a complete nightmare”.

Sam Elmhirst's lodge was left with no running water and deemed uninhabitable by South Norfolk District Council (Image: Newsquest)

Welcoming the court outcome, she said: “We were one of many victims who for the last few years have been trying to get justice and trading standards to fully investigate our case. At last, he has been jailed.”

Sentencing him, Recorder Renvoize told Escrader: “They [the victims] feel gullible, but they shouldn’t, you are a talented salesman. To your shame, you put those skills to use.

“You lost sight of the service you were supposed to provide and instead of stopping and focusing you continued taking money.”