How to chase cowboy builder

garynumanfan

My dad got "done" by a cowboy builder a few years ago. This irish guy was supposed to re-tile my dads roof , but all he did was paint the roof, and charged dad £25,000 to do it. This guy took dad to the bank to get out more and more money to pay him. At one point dad went to get a loan to pay this guy, but the loan arranger dad went to see, got suspicious , as dad was retired and had no way of paying the money back. So the loan arranger told the police, and
the guy was caught and eventually pleaded guilty and got a suspended sentence. He has a long list of charges against him, obtaining money by deception , bad workmanship, etc etc


My dad has since died, and on sale of the house, we now owe the building society £35,000, which is the 25K plus interest.Dad had remortgaged the house house to pay the irish guy . House has been sold now .

We have solicitors dealing with the matter of the cowboy. He was trying to find out where he lived, but wasn’t getting much help from the police, he said police werent being very helpful, they were being quoted data protection act etc.

Our solicitors were asking us, if we knew where he lived. We didn’t. Im a bit surprised that the solicitors didn’t know about the memorandum of conviction, as THEY are the solicitors, not us….

So I rang the police and asked how did our solicitors find out where irish guy lived.The police told me that because he had been given a suspended sentence, anyone could apply for a memorandum of conviction, which would tell us where the irish guy lived. Police said the data protection act didn’t apply as he had been given suspended sentence and it was a matter of public record so anyone could apply for his address.

My sister applied to the police for a memorandum of conviction and we now know where he lives. We have also found a building company registered at his home address, but that has been checked with companies house and its in liquidation. The house where irish guy lives is in his wifes name. Our solicitors, say that if the irish guy , had property in his name , we could force him to sell/ remortgage to pay us the £35K back . Our solicitors are saying that as he doesn’t seem to have property in his name , we might be throwing good money after bad , trying to chase him , if he has no assets to sell, to repay us I did ring the police and asked them how we find out if he owns any property in his name, and police said to try land registry. I have looked at land registry and there doesn’t seem a way of searching on a persons name

My question is this

Is there any way of getting to the irish guy, through his wife, as his house is in his wifes name

BitterAndTwisted

No, and that is precisely why this guy's house is in his wife's name. Trust your solicitor's advice.

Draw a line under it and move on as it will be much, much better for your mental health in the long run.

G_M

I doubt if you can get assets/cash from his wife. It may seem unfair, but she has committed no offence.

You could speak to the Land registry and see if there is a way of tracing any other property he may have, but again, I am doubtful.

Searching the internet yourself might turn something up, but if you are serious I'd recommend a private detective who would have expertise in tracing people and their assets.

However I agree with your solicitor - it could cost you a lot and might well lead nowhere.

Is the prime motivation getting the cash back, or revenge? The answer to that should dictate what you do!

BitterAndTwisted

Well, now that the OP knows where this swine lives it's only a matter of time before they know which car they drive. it would be a tragedy if their tyres got slashed under cover of darkness on a regular basis.

garynumanfan

my point of view, is 3 fold

partly revenge, a suspended sentence for some low life is not enough

partly to get back what he owes us

and partly to prevent him doing same again to someone else

BitterAndTwisted

People who do what he did to your Dad are usually quite clued-up about how to hide their assets. Having their house in his wife's name and the company in liquidation are proof of that, I think. I honestly believe you'd be on a hiding to nothing trying to pursue this. It could cost a fortune in legal fees just for you to draw a blank at the final hurdle.

mrcol1000

garynumanfan wrote: »

my point of view, is 3 fold

partly revenge, a suspended sentence for some low life is not enough

partly to get back what he owes us

and partly to prevent him doing same again to someone else

Revenge always seems a better prospect than it turns out to be. People like this protect themselves and get away with it as they know the law. Your never stop it happening again. Its more important to educate people on how to protect themselves. If you really want to get him back your far better off going to a program like Watchdog who if they are interested in your case would know how to track these people down.

garynumanfan

i mentioned the situation to a friend and she said knew someone who used to work for land registry and now works for police, so would she what she said. Her friend says we wont find him using land registry, so it looks like we have hit the final brick wall