A pensioner and her dying husband who forked out more than £65,000 to a builder claim they were left with nothing but a half-built shell.
Joanna Dennis, 81, hired Kelvin Humphries to build an extension on the bungalow in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, she shared with her husband Charles.
Mrs Dennis said the extension would make life easier for her husband, who was suffering from cancer.
However, she claims work became a "stop-start" and eventually stopped altogether.
By the time Mr Dennis died aged 80, they had paid Mr Humphries just under £66,000.
And the couple's daughter and son-in-law, who also commissioned Mr Humphries to work on their home, said they too were left in the lurch by the builder.
Mrs Dennis told StokeonTrentLive: “I wanted the work done because I knew my husband was on borrowed time. I wanted him to be able to spend time in the extension, and to listen to his music on his sound system. I wanted a proper kitchen so I was able to cook for him. But with the work going on all I had was two microwaves, a toaster and an ActiFry.”
Mrs Dennis said work got underway at Christmas 2020, and in June Mr Humphries asked her for another £16,000 towards the work.
She said in November of 2021, she was told by him that he had underestimated the cost of putting foundations in.
By Christmas 2021, she grew concerned about the cold weather and claims she handed more money over for doors and windows.
But, Mrs Dennis claims, they never materialised either.
Mrs Dennis claimed she was then promised he would order roof trusses, and that she gave him another £3,500.
Then before all contact was lost, Mr Humphries asked for £11,000 for plasterboard and other materials, saying he would store it in his lock-up until needed.
Mrs Dennis said she refused at that point.
She added: “The last work was done in February 2022 and after that, he disappeared. We had to get someone else in.
“My husband passed away soon afterwards, in May. I had just wanted to make the last few months of his life as happy and peaceful as I could. If that builder had done what he’d said he would do, then he would have had that.”
The couple had transferred a total of £65,890 to Mr Humphries between November 2020 and December 2021.
Mrs Dennis' daughter Cath, 58, who attended Berryhill High School with Mr Humphries, had a similar experience - not seeing or hearing anything of him since the same time last year.
Malcolm Hooper, Cath’s partner, said Mr Humphries had been working on their Berryhill home.
He added: “When it started off he quoted us around £27,000. Then he said he had quoted us wrong so we gave him another couple of grand, and then another £4,000 for the roof.
“In the end, we had to pay someone else another £4,000 to do the roof.
“My wife went to school with him, and I went to the same school and knew of him.
“My last message to him was on February 28 last year, when he was supposed to have been ringing me. I said to him I didn’t think you wouldn’t turn up for a disabled person (Cath) and a man in the last days of cancer.
“Knowing him, we trusted him when maybe we shouldn’t have, but there you go.”
Mr Humphries has disabled his social media account.
When StokeonTrentLive visited the last known address for him, a new family was in the property and knew nothing of Mr Humphries or his whereabouts.
