‘Cowboy builder’ jailed for £130k trail of botched and dangerous work

Kyle Muir, 27, was told he had displayed a “blasé, couldn’t give a damn attitude” during a “campaign of cowboy building and rogue trading” as he was sentenced to 33 months in prison.

Norwich Crown Court heard his catalogue of botched building projects included a two-storey extension that resulted in a dangerously sagging roof, live electrical cables dangling down, wonky walls and gas pipes built into a cavity wall.

Vicki Mileham was left nearly £80,000 out of pocket for the work at her home at Belton, near Great Yarmouth, which was never completed by Diamond Standard Renovations, run by Muir and his co-defendant Reece Lloyd.

Prosecutor Matthew Sorel-Cameron said the work had seen the kitchen without water and electricity supplies from Chrtistmas 2019 to Easter 2020.

The sagging roof of Vicki Mileham's botched extension, which was undulating back in March and eventually had to be torn down altogether. Photo: Vicki Mileham (Image: Archant)

Kitchen units wrongly fitted had not been the new B&Q kitchen she had paid for but was instead a “second-hand kitchen that had been bought from a man on Facebook”.

A plumber who inspected the work was so concerned that the badly fitted boiler flue would leak fumes into her home that he reported it to the Health and Safety Executive, the court was told.

A second victim who paid Diamond Standard Renovations more than £26,000 to fit a bathroom and kitchen found the work left incomplete with serious faults including a hole in the wall and the cooker incorrectly fitted.

Kyle Muir pleaded also received a 10-year criminal behaviour order. (Image: Archant)

Muir had previously admitted seven fraud offences relating to projects he failed to finish under the auspices of three companies he ran as part of a prosecution brought by Norfolk Trading Standards.

The offences, which also included work at homes in Bradwell, Hethersett and Hingham, took place between October 2019 and June 2021

Lloyd, 31, of Western Road, Gorleston, had admitted an offence under Unfair Trading Regulations.

The court was told that despite trading standards warnings, Muir had gone on to set up another company, Better Home Improvements, that saw a string of further complaints from dissatisfied customers.

A picture taken this week of Mrs Mileham's home (Image: Vicki Mileham)

One victim, who paid £8,500 after seeing the company listed on mybuilder.com fraudulently displaying the logo of 'TrustATrader', had items never delivered and work done so badly it cost £17,000 to rectify.

Others paid large sums for scaffold work that was never carried out after Muir faked documentation claiming to be from the owner of a scaffolding company.

In total victims were left more than £14,000 out of pocket, said Mr Sorel-Cameron.

Summing up personal impact statements from victims, he said one had described her life had been a “living hell” and that she had been left “having to work all hours to make up for lost income”.

Another said she had found Muir “persuasive and plausible which made her feel confident” but now she felt “ashamed and embarrassed”.

A hole in the kitchen area at Vicki Mileham's home (Image: Vicki Mileham)

An elderly woman caring full-time for her husband who has dementia said she had been “hurt and humiliated by Muir”. Another said she “rued the day she ever let them into her house”.

Simon Molyneux, defence counsel for Muir, said his behaviour had been “reprehensible”.

“Clearly there was a significant impact on the victims which he acknowledges,” he added.

Oliver Haswell, for Lloyd, read out an apology to victims saying he had “not only done wrong by them but could have seriously harmed them”.

“I am disgusted, embarrassed, ashamed and so full of guilt,” he added.

The kitchen at Vicki Mileham's home (Image: Vicki Mileham)

Jailing Muir and making him the subject of a 10 year criminal behaviour order, Recorder John Hardy said: “It is a marked contrast between your behaviour and that of the community as a whole that the community has engaged in a fundraising exercise to help out your victims.”

Sentencing Lloyd to nine months imprisonment suspended for 18 months and 200 hours unpaid work, he told him he had escaped a custodial sentence by the “skin of your teeth”.

“You have recognised that your behaviour was thoroughly disgraceful, utterly dishonest and devious,” he added.

The court was told the prosecution would be seeking a proceeds of crime order to recover money paid by their victims.