Woman betrayed by family friend who botched her bathrooms and stole money from her

Alison Thomas says she was devastated after putting her faith in someone who she thought was a family friend to do three bathrooms up in her home. But she says she was left with a botched set of rooms.

Alison had lost her beloved husband David in early 2019 after he battled cancer and went through chemotherapy and gruelling treatment.

David had desperately wanted to have the bathrooms in their home refitted, but their plans were put on hold due to his health, so Alison decided to follow through with their plans after he died.

A family friend, Sean Goble, offered to do the renovation for Alison and she says he told her not to go to anyone else.

She trusted Mr Goble, who she had known for over 20 years. She says he was an usher at her son’s wedding, but as the work began cracks began to show.

Alison, of Droxford, found herself paying for three skips and was never paid the money back as he had promised, she had a leak from her bathroom and Mr Goble, according to court papers, had been overcharging her for many items purchased.

Her dog had also cut its leg after stepping on broken tiles dumped in the back garden, resulting in Alison paying nearly £100 for emergency treatment.

She said that she wanted to order a mirror, but that he said he would do it for and when it arrived she was not happy with it because it was not what she told him she wanted.

She said: ‘When he opened up the box, the invoice must have fallen under the bed and when he left I found that the mirror was £99 when he told me it was £200.

‘It is disgusting what he did. He is just a pig and and now he claims that he has no idea who I am.’

Alison asked him multiple times to fix the issues and he refused to do so.

She then went to other companies for quotes on how much it would cost to fix the three bathrooms, where she was informed it would need to be completely re-done, costing her thousands.

She was unable to use her en suite and her property had multiple leaks from the bathrooms.

She took him to court in May 2021 for his work and a county count judgement saw her awarded £52,192.36 and £2,719.55 in costs.

Tom Oliver, Alison’s solicitor at Glanvilles, said: ‘He has clearly been acting very poorly, taking lots of money and taking advantage.

‘He was a trusted friend of the family and he did all sorts of unpleasant things while he was working on the bathrooms.’

The solicitor said that Sean moved his assets so he has nothing to give Alison, but that the charge will continue and he will always be liable to pay for the damage caused.

Alison said: ‘This wouldn’t have happened if my husband had been here. It is dreadful.’

The News tried contacting Mr Goble with no response.