‘Britain’s worst cowboy builder tore my roof down during a storm – I won’t trust anyone ever again’

A single mother planning to get her loft converted so she could foster children was left broken by Britain’s worst cowboy builder.

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

He lied to others saying he had been in a car crash or that his father had a heart attack before vanishing.

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

Justice finally caught up with the serial fraudster, from Paulton, Somerset, as cops detained him and sentenced him to 14 years in prison after fleecing dozens of families out of more than £1.25 million.

Wendy Bell, 53, told Metro she found Killick working for the company Pro Fit Builders over the website Rated People.

She said: ‘I was about to start fostering and needed more space. After contacting me on the Sunday morning he arrived at my house.

‘He told me the cost would be £30,000 and would take 12 weeks. He was friendly, flirtatious even.

‘He started to send builders to the house and the scaffolding went up. I think I only saw him once or twice but I gave him a £10,000 deposit.

‘They removed a large part of my roof, which wasn’t a problem as it was summer.’

But it soon got to winter and the job was still nowhere near finished.

‘On one occasion in the winter, I had no covering over my roof.

‘We had a terrible storm. I called Mark at about 2am.

‘I was surprised he answered and the next morning he sent a very young man to my house to climb up.

‘He had no proper equipment or the right safety stuff. The weather was still really bad so I would not let him get up there.’

The care support worker added: ‘He kept asking for more money for materials and I kept giving it to him.

‘Until the building inspector came out and said the work was dangerous, especially the electrics.’

The inspector handed her a piece of paper and told her to call a phone number of another woman who had work done by Killick.

‘I called her and couldn’t believe what she told me about Mark’, she said. ‘There were about 20 families that had work started but only to a very poor standard.’

Panicking, she called the police only to be told it was a ‘civil matter’ before Action Fraud got involved.

‘All the families that were involved met up a few times, and he ended up in Crown Court.

‘I think one of the reasons I trusted him so much was that his partner was apparently in the police.

‘I met so many self-employed builders that he wasn’t paying.

‘He didn’t pay the scaffolding company.

‘He would always make excuses up like his dad had a heart attack.

‘On one occasion, he showed me his van was smashed up on the motorway and that’s why he couldn’t get to mine.

‘His stepson broke his arm, then he was involved in a car crash.

‘Then one of his builders was suicidal and he had to go and help him get him sectioned.’

‘He left my house completely destroyed, but some people lost more than I did.

‘There were families that were having granny flats built to look after dying family members. Some people were fighting cancer at the same time.

‘It was good to see him in the dock, but we were told in court that all the money had been gambled away.’

Even after watching him being jailed Ms Bell said the pain still hurts.

She added: ‘It’s still very raw. It led me to move. I still don’t trust workmen now. I still have nightmares. I haven’t been fostering ever since.

‘I had to take time off work because it made me so ill. He’s a nasty, dangerous man.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever really get over it. I’m still very sceptical about people. It has had a long- lasting impact.

‘I lost £30,000 to him, but more than that really because I had to find more money to rebuild my home.’

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.