An Essex builder who fraudulently promised to deliver luxury garden rooms for customers has been sentenced to three years imprisonment.
Christopher Escrader, 35, of School Lane, Little Melton, Norwich, was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Wednesday 13 September. This was after he pleaded guilty to four offences of Fraudulent Trading under S.993 of the Companies Act 2006. He was also disqualified from being a company director under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 for seven years.
Essex Trading Standards launched an investigation in September 2019. This was after receiving numerous complaints from Escrader’s victims in Essex and the surrounding areas.
The companies identified from the complaints were Hudson Garden Rooms Limited, who most consumers were contracted with, Hudson Bespoke Builders Limited, Hudson (Essex) Limited and Hudson Living Limited.
Hudson Garden Rooms Limited went into liquidation. However, Escrader continued to trade and receive money in different business accounts without notifying customers which company they were contracting with.
Escrader would visit the individuals and create a 3D drawings of the dream builds. Prices ranged from £20,000 to £108,000 for the projects.
He would then set out installation dates and collect 90% of the payment before any work even started on site.
Promised start dates were delayed, and construction would begin but then would slow or cease after a period of time. Victims were left with half-finished shells, non-ordered products before later finding that incorrect materials had been used.
Customers also discovered that they had paid up to £7,500 for planning permission and building control approval, despite no applications being made..
The six victims paid over £278,000 to Escrader for shells, incomplete builds and in one case, no work at all.
When the victims complained, they were eventually emailed by Escrader in an attempt to avoid any liability.
Consumers lost all money paid to Escrader and had to find huge additional funds to complete their builds, ensure planning and building control had been approved and in some cases pay solicitors’ fees in an attempt to try and get a resolution. Collectively, the six victims had to pay approximately £150,000 to rectify the work to a finished state but not to the initial specification promised by Escrader.
Councillor Mark Durham, Essex County Council Cabinet Member Responsible for Essex Trading Standards, said:
This has been a long-running investigation by Essex Trading Standards, and I would like to thank our team for all of their efforts.
This prosecution shows we take illegal business activity very seriously and will not hesitate to take action against fraudsters where necessary.