A cowboy builder who ghosted a family after they paid him £38,500 for a job he never finished has been jailed.
Jason Brice, who traded as Creo Creations, told Jaime and Noah Fagan he needed a month off due to ‘mental health’ issues in the middle of a loft conversion to make space for their two sons, who have special needs, in 2022.
The Bristol-based couple say he left the loft in a ‘shoddy’ state – complete with a leaking roof – and ‘vanished’, changing his phone number so they couldn’t reach him.
Brice’s ruse was rumbled after the Fagans found pictures on social media showing him partying at Bristol nightclub Popworld and kicking back at a Somerset seaside holiday park.
She added: ‘After we hadn’t heard from him in ages I just started checking out his Facebook and could see all these pictures of him out with his mates.
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‘The Popworld pictures all had dates and were over the last month when he claimed he had mental health issues. But he was our partying and spending all our money.’
The couple reported Brice to police but it was brushed off as a ‘civil matter’.
He was only prosecuted as a criminal after Trading Standards took on the case and found two other people he’d ripped off.
The rogue tradesman was jailed for eight months in August after pleading guilty to three offences under Consumer Protection legislation.
Judge Martin Picton, sentencing, told the defendant he did ‘terrible stuff’ and walked away when his work got difficult.
As Brice was led away he shouted: ‘What, I am going to prison, is that really necessary?’
The judge replied: ‘Yes.’
The Fagans had to spend another £20,000 for builders to rectify the problems and £29,500 on top of that to finish the conversion.
The process took ‘years’ because of the difficulties they had putting together more money, having already maxed out the additional borrowing limit from their mortgage provider, Jaime, 46, added.
‘We’ve only been able to do bits when we have had the money.
‘We finally started using the room in July 2024, just over two years from the scheduled date of completion, but we still need to replace the stairs which fall short of the doorway and repair the landing ceiling.’
The couple were forced to rely ‘heavily’ on family and friends to look after their sons.
Jaime said the boys ‘struggled to understand what happened’ and ‘blamed us for the mess we’ve been in’.
‘We set out on this project to try and make our life easier, to stay in our home and to help support our children,’ she added.
‘The result has been the compete opposite.
‘It’s a complete mess, and I am so angry that Jason Brice felt it was acceptable to use our vulnerabilities to rip us off for his own personal gain.’
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