{"id":663778,"date":"2026-06-29T04:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/663778\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:43:19","slug":"rogue-builder-spent-flintshire-couples-30k-in-lanzarote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/663778\/","title":{"rendered":"Rogue builder spent Flintshire couple’s \u00a330k in Lanzarote"},"content":{"rendered":"

A heartbroken couple lost more than \u00a330,000 to a rogue builder who left their new extension unfinished, with water pouring into their home.<\/p>\n

Alarms bells had been raised earlier when Shelley Sawkins, 75, called the tradesman, and realised he was in Lanzarote, spending money she had given him. <\/p>\n

The builder, Christian Williams, 54, is currently serving a two-year prison sentence after admitting theft and three counts of fraud by false representation involving four families. <\/p>\n

In a Proceeds of Crime Act, external<\/a> hearing earlier this month, Mold Crown Court heard he had benefitted to the tune of \u00a3163,051.70 from his offending, but his assets available to pay back amounted to just \u00a31. <\/p>\n

Williams had been posting photos on Facebook of holidays and days out at the races, while one of his victims, a dad of three, had to finish his two-storey extension himself. <\/p>\n

Shelley and husband Barry, 63, spent \u00a350,000 in total getting the botched job at their bungalow in Buckley, Flintshire, fixed – almost \u00a330,000 more than the initial quote of \u00a321,000.<\/p>\n

About \u00a330,000 went to Williams, and \u00a320,000 to other builders fixing the mess he had left. <\/p>\n

But there are still major problems, including uneven flooring, and they are now desperate to move out of their once-beloved home and into sheltered accommodation.<\/p>\n

“We paid the first installment. The work started, and then just stopped,” Shelley said. <\/p>\n

“Then we saw he was in Lanzarote on holiday with our money.<\/p>\n

“He would disappear for weeks and then come back with excuse after excuse.”<\/p>\n

They had hoped work from Williams – trading as Chris Williams Construction – would make their lives easier, providing a spacious kitchen area.<\/p>\n

But instead, it ruined their happy lifestyle, Shelley added.<\/p>\n

The first sign the job was not up to scratch was when one of the walls started to wobble when pushed. <\/p>\n

Then one night, after the roof had been worked on, rainwater began pouring into the house. <\/p>\n

Shelley had been caring for her husband – who has Alzheimer’s disease, external<\/a> – and added: “I was up in the middle of the night collecting water in buckets while trying to look after my husband.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t have enough buckets. <\/p>\n

“I was in tears. I was constantly in tears. It was a nightmare.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A heartbroken couple lost more than \u00a330,000 to a rogue builder who left their new extension unfinished, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-663778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}