How do you know that an ex-con tradesperson is legit?

Lbuk

Found a building contractor ready to start asap and quote good. He seemed nice.

Reviews seem planted though as members all joined and reviewed at same time.

He seems to have spent a long time in prison until recently for drug related offences, which kind of explains his lack of history and availability.

Obviously everyone is warning me away from using him but no one else can even be bothered quoting and I kind of feel like you can never know if a tradesman is going to scam you…

I feel awkward about the conversation I need to have with him.

What do I need to be asking a building contractor to provide to be assured that he is legit, particularly in this case where he’s just spent 10 years in prison?

Doozergirl

Is this a serious question? Everything else aside,  how much building work do you think he's done in prison over the last 10 years?  

My advice is always to speak to recent customers and to go to their houses and see the work if possible.  If they haven't done any work, you're a bit scuppered.  

What work are you expecting this person to do? 

Martin_the_Unjust

So to sum up,

No recent experience, check

Fake reviews, check

Dodgy past, check

Looks good to me, what could possibly go wrong?

PS, good trades (especially if it’s a job of any size) will be looking to quote for jobs they can diary in for late 23 early 24.

TELLIT01

On the plus side it's good that somebody seems to be trying to make a fresh start.  On the downside is that fact that his reviews all seem dodgy.  Clearly not very good at fraud if all the reviewers joined at the same time, as that will be obvious to anybody looking at them. 

As Doozergirl asked, what work do you want done?  If it's outside work only then maybe it's worth taking a chance if you need it done urgently.  Most established tradespeople will be pretty well booked up for months ahead, maybe not into 2024.  My brother-in-law is constantly booked for at least 3 months.

stuart45

I've worked with quite a lot of ex cons over the years in the building trade. Some of them were really good tradesmen, although I would say the majority were labourers.
One of the hod carriers used to get drunk and break into his local TV shop and steal a few bits. He stopped when he was sent to prison after getting caught a few times. It was well known locally about him and the TV shop, so when some more professional thieves broke in and cleared the place one night they dumped all the empty boxes in his front garden.
The police eventually saw the funny side of this.

fenwick458

it's a massive gamble to take in my opinion. have you got a written quote from the ex con or it it all just verbal and cash?
what are "drug related charges"? was he dealing, or was he using? neither of them seem appealing! 10 years is a long time to be inside, isn't that up there with the most severe of punishments you can get in this country?
in my opinion the amount of due diligence you are going to have to do to on this guy you might as well just keep looking and find a reputable tradesman...
why are you finding it so hard to get quotes, who have you asked, roughly what is the job?

FreeBear

Doozergirl said:   how much building work do you think he's done in prison over the last 10 years? 

He may have been doing some vocational training to prepare him for work after release.

andyf1980

Naive question maybe but how do you know he’s been in prison?

diystarter7

andyf1980 said:

Naive question maybe but how do you know he’s been in prison?

Ditto!

People do change.
Often those that change will change once they have been caught first time and not usually have a history of crime but a one-off crime. Thi crime is often insurance fraud etc EG claims on a phone they dropped and damaged and claiming it was stolen but still have it or their car goes wrong and they set it or fire trash it etc as they otherwise are losing too much money.


I have an ex crim work for us on the house and when I gave him the second job about 6 months later we got talking about people wanting something for nothing not prepared to work and I said: "once a crim always a crim.." and he said he was a crim. He then told me what he did.  He said it was a one off he was young and foolish his parents fell out with him and it shook him up now married kids and a mortgage he was 101% straight.  I used him once again and we left him in the house alone.

Crims, repeat crims dont often have it printed on their foreheads and the nasty ones are often sly and too nice

Check out his work and where he lives etc and if still happy, your choice

Risteard

He's done his time. He has already been punished. He deserves the same rights as everyone else.

twopenny

I don't think it's anything to do with his history. 
Alarm bells rang when you said he was available to start immediately. So no experience and no regular customers.
The reviews are not right. 
So many people have bought themselves a van and glorified what they can do in the last 2yrs because theres a lot of demand for work.
You need a wrtiien quote detailing what you want done, at what price and when the money should be paid. 
He may not have an established account with a builders merchant. You may have to agree to buy the materials but you pay for them and delivery to your house. He does the work.
I'd agree if it's something non essential where bad work can be redone its a chance to take.