Rogue builder botched asbestos removal - and forced Southsea couple to fly relative 1,300 miles from Ukraine to fix wrecked garage

The victims, an Italian and his Ukrainian wife, 39 and 36, felt ‘abandoned’ after Davey Stiles applied pressure to ramp up a £2,000 estimate for work at their detached Southsea garage to £6,650.

It is the latest in string of cases brought by Portsmouth City Council as the authority told victims of dodgy builders and scam artists: ‘We’re coming for them.’

Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court heard ‘ruthless’ Stiles ignored their imploring text messages as they begged him to recover the broken and dumped asbestos roof left in open bags a communal alleyway. The garage’s new roof was dipped and leaking rainwater.

Despite the health risks, Stiles left the upset couple in the lurch having put their two young children at risk from the asbestos in Burgoyne Road.

So poor was the overall workmanship that a surveyor assessing the building refused to open the front up-and-over door over safety fears.

The distraught mother-of-two victim, who asked not to be named, flew her housebuilder father to the UK from a small village in southern Ukraine to spend two weeks rebuilding the garage at a cost of £1,000 for materials.

It cost them around £400 to have the asbestos taken away by a licensed professional.

Speaking to The News, the husband said: ‘We were not born here so this is something that frankly made us feel really like strangers and we didn’t expect that we would be protected because we were not even English.

‘So in fact it was surprising that we’re not English but we have been assisted very nicely by the council from the beginning.’

Trading Standards investigated after the couple told them about Stiles, who traded as B&D Building Contractors, and how he had responded to their posting about needing work done on mybuilder.com

Now Stiles, who was contracted to do the work in October 2018, has notched up another conviction to add to his previous 21 for 41 offences.

Stiles, of Shelby Road, Worthing, admitted five charges, including two of fraud, in relation to the garage.

In court, the victim said: ‘I felt so badly treated by a ruthless person.

‘This goes way beyond the economic effect it had. We were broken.’

But he added: ‘The council helping us made us feel not alone, not abandoned.’

Stiles’ lawyer Nicholas Bates said his client was unwell and should not have been running a company - but that his mum would pay any financial penalty.

Sentencing, district judge Anthony Callaway ordered him to pay £2,000 compensation but stopped short of sending him to jail.

Addressing Stiles, he said: ‘I don’t like to call what you did to this property work, it was far from it.

‘Nor indeed could it be described as incompetent work - it was criminal work.

‘Innocent people engaged you, the householders in this case, and they expected decent work from a bona fide operator for which they expected to pay, and moreover they did pay the result of your involvement in that (building) is clear for all to see.

‘Their (garage) was left in an appalling condition, asbestos which I regard to be a major aggravating factor in this case, was left behind.

‘You were contacted by them to do something about it and you ignored it.’

The judge imposed a five-month jail term suspended for 18 months with 20 rehabilitation activity days and a two-month 7pm to 7am curfew.

Stiles has 28 days to pay the compensation, and £769 he already owes the court for past offences.

He had been contracted to remove and dispose asbestos cement sheet roofing, replace the corrugated roof, put in a new up-and-over garage door, and another door with guttering.

A man had been working for Stiles at the garage.

Cllr Lee Hunt, the council's cabinet member for community safety, said this was a 'particularly nasty' case. 'I have been warning dodgy builders, fraudsters and scammers that this council is going to come after them if they behave in a criminal way,' he said.

'This is one of the convictions we have been seeking and there will be more. These people should watch out because we're coming after them.'

Richard Lee, the council's regulatory services manager, said: 'We take a zero-tolerance approach to rogue traders. On this occasion, not only was the work undertaken substandard, but the contractor showed no regard for the health and safety of the homeowners, their children and others.

'The breaking up of asbestos-containing material at the property and failing to ensure it was disposed of in accordance with guidelines is a very serious matter.

‘We will continue to take the necessary measures against such reckless activity and seek justice for residents who have fallen victim to such criminality.'

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