Leeds Crown Court: Cowboy builder's 'catastrophic' damage to Horsforth couple's home has ‘traumatic’ impact

The husband and wife from Horsforth said they were forced to fork out over £60,000 to repair the damage caused to their home after the building work was abandoned by Thomas Dexter, 35.

The couple approached him about a wooden beam he installed that “could’ve collapsed at any moment”, to which he responded with a message saying: “Do you think I don’t know people. You can try and come at me all you like but be careful. That is not a threat.”

The husband gave an impassioned victim impact statement in the court, saying that the impact Dexter’s “appalling and illegal workmanship” had had on their lives had been “traumatic".

Dexter, of Stephenson Drive in Silsden West, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court today (Tuesday) after pleading guilty to one count of fraud by false representation and one count of sending electronic communications to cause stress and anxiety.

For the prosecution, Harry Crowson told the court that the couple, who have two children, approached Dexter about carrying out a full-house renovation of their home in 2021. It was agreed that he would carry out the work for £46,000 – the couple’s “life savings” – and he told them that the work should be completed in July 2021.

Work started in April and the couple paid Dexter £5,000 a fortnight, although in June he told them that further work was needed in the basement and it would cost them £10,000 more.

Mr Crowson said the “fraud came to light” when Dexter made “constant excuses” for delaying the work, saying on numerous occasions that he had coronavirus and that he could not access emails.

The couple hired a structural engineer to assess the property, who found that Dexter had installed a “dangerous” wooden beam where he said he would install a steel beam.

When the couple approached Dexter, Mr Crowson said that “the excuses continued” and Dexter did not rectify the issues. Dexter insisted that he had installed a steel beam, which is what the count of fraud relates to.

Mr Crowson went on to say the Dexter’s actions “led to flooding in the cellar” and that the couple paid “in excess of £20,000 to put things right by competent contractors”.

The couple later found other people who had hired Dexter and “described similar stories due to incompetence or negligence”.

Reading out a victim personal statement to the court, the husband in the case said: “It is difficult to articulate the extent of the financial, emotional and physical harm caused by these offences. The effects of Dexter’s deliberate actions to defraud my wife and I, and then to subsequently threaten us with violence in order to silence us, have been both significant and disturbing.”

He added: “It seems to us, motivated by greed, Dexter has only ever been interested in evading responsibility for what he has done to our family by continually lying, gas-lighting and using threats of violence.”

He said that the wooden beam “could’ve collapsed at any point”, which would’ve brought down his daughter’s bedroom that was immediately above. He said: “We felt both disbelief and horror that Dexter was willing to cause death or serious injury, even to our young child and my wife, who was pregnant at the time.”

He said that when the couple approached him about the fraud he “abandoned the entire renovation job”, which they had already paid him for. He said that the scale of fixing the issues left by Dexter was “frightening and overwhelming” and that “ultimately the costs came to £66,131”.

“The house was completely uninhabitable so we were left homeless”, he said. “We had to pay for a rental property alongside our mortgage in order to have somewhere to live for eight months while remedial work was undertaken.”

He added that due to the issues the couple “could not afford to buy Christmas presents for our daughter” and were “only able to avoid financial ruin” by securing an emergency bank loan.

He said that the matters had also had a detrimental impact on his mental health. He said that after his wife gave birth she had suffered a bout of shingles, which doctors indicated was stress-induced.

He said: “The impact pf Dexter’s fraud and malicious communication was catastrophic and life-changing. It continues to negatively affect our ability to lead a normal, family life and will do for many years to come.”

Mr Crowson said that Dexter sent the threatening text in December 2021. The court also heard that Dexter had been previously convicted over unrelated offences of a domestic nature.

Representing Dexter, Eleanor Mitten said that her client did not accept responsibility for any of the issues with the house other than the installation of the wooden beam. She said that he “does not accept that the financial consequences have occurred due to his work”.

Ms Mitten added that Dexter had also got a separate report from a structural engineer for the property that disputed the couple’s report, though he was not able to provide this to the court.

The court heard that Dexter had moved to a different area in recent months and had set up a new building company based from there that was “going reasonably well”.

Referring to the victim personal statement, The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Guy Earl KC, told Dexter: “I hop that you were ashamed of the effects your conduct has had on him.”

He sentenced Dexter to a two year community order, during which he must carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

He said that he could only order Dexter to pay compensation for the issues that were relevant to the case, and so ordered him to pay £4,675 to the couple for the costs to repair the beam.