Britain’s worst cowboy builder claimed he had ‘Covid in his foot’ and couldn’t finish job

One of Britain’s worst rogue builders has been jailed after fleecing dozens of customers out of more than £1.25 million.

Mark Killick, 56, who was known to his customers as Marc Cole, took payments from customers and then spent them on himself, funding world travels and gambling.

One review of his work found that he lied about having ‘Covid-19’ in his foot, meaning he was unable to finish one job.

Justice finally caught up with the serial fraudster, from Paulton, Somerset, as cops detained him and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.

It is estimated that the value of the work not done by Killick for his 37 victims was approximately £1,270,000.

It was only when Killick received more than 100 complaints that he was subsequently charged with 46 offenses of fraud by false representation between 2019 and 2021 – worth the equivalent of a ‘lottery win’, his trial was told.

Sentencing him at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Moira Macmillan told him he had caused serious harm to his victims by leaving their homes in a ‘truly shocking’ state.

Killick will be made subject to a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO) and will also be subject to a 15-year order disqualifying him from being a company director.

Among his victims was Stephen Gledhill from Bristol, who told the BBC he had paid the fraudster £18k in advance for a new kitchen.

He said after the case: ‘I just feel really shocked that he could go through with something like that, telling multiple lies to so many people.’

Speaking after the case, police also described Killick’s offending as ‘fraud on an eye-watering scale.’

The trial heard how Killick would request customers pay large sums of money upfront to enable him to pay for orders or materials.

He then stressed to some customers they needed to pay their bills ‘urgently’ – but the court was told he was running a ‘ponzi scheme’ and effectively using that money to fund the work for customers who had paid him months before for jobs he had not completed.

He was also accused of failing to pay suppliers and contractors, too – further increasing the company’s liabilities.

Killick’s company, TD Cole Ltd, began work for some of his customers, who would then see no progress for weeks or months at a time, even after having already spent tens of thousands of pounds.

The prosecution said the victims were in a weak bargaining position because their house had been turned into a building site and they were left waiting for Killick to return calls and messages to explain when work would restart.

Other customers paid Killick and TD Cole for work that was never even started.

The jury found Killick guilty of 37 counts of fraud by false representation (33 unanimously and four by majority verdict) and not guilty on one count. The remaining eight counts he was not convicted of.

Detective Sergeant Louise Sinclair said after the case: ‘Mark Killick sold his customers a housing redevelopment dream. He left them with a nightmare and thousands of pounds out of pocket.

‘The change of name prevented any of Killick’s customers who researched his credentials from seeing the media reports of his previous fraud convictions. He is a serial fraudster.’

Killick’s victims were also unaware of his existing criminal record. Between 2008 and 2014, Killick was investigated and prosecuted twice for fraud offenses relating to failing to complete building work after asking for deposits.

In 2008, he was convicted under the name Killick and in 2014 under the name Mark Jenkins, which was his grandfather’s name.

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