A conman from Caerphilly who was featured on Channel 5’s Cowboy Builders programme has been jailed for three-and-a-half years after he tore his victims’ homes apart and left them £43,000 out of pocket.
Last week Newport Crown Court heard how Lee Slocombe, 32, started work on properties only to ask his victims for more cash to get the job done. He would then fail to return leaving homes like building sites and requiring further work to put right.
Slocombe, 32, was recently featured on Channel 5 programme Cowboy Builders which told the story of his deception.
Among his victims were PC James Gardner, 32, and Sheri Hall, 24, who hired the builder to undertake some minor work at their new home in Aberbeeg, Blaenau Gwent.
Slocombe went round their house damaging the ceilings, interior walls and floors.
He left the couple without a staircase or radiators and when they returned to the house they found their floorboards lying in the back garden and had to negotiate a four-foot drop into rubble to get into the front door.
The couple contacted TV’s Cowboy Builders, which helped restore their cottage and exposed Slocombe, leading to a police investigation.
He was handed a 43-month sentence, having pleaded guilty to defrauding one family of £26,000, another of £13,450 and a third of £4,000.
It doesn’t mean he’ll do three-and-a-half years jail, he’ll do 18 months out of that, and plus and plus Slocombe, 32, was recently featured on Channel 5 programme Cowboy Builders so the judges had no option to make a example of him, trouble is it’s extremely dangerous health and safety. and the idiot caused serious criminal damage to the properties this is the new breed of fraudster running around now these terrible people make families spilt up and even death