Rogue builders took my money, hope and dignity but kind strangers helped to give us our home back

Two years ago, intensive care nurse Catharine Lewis was sat in her home which had become anything but the safe and restful place she needed after her long shifts.

- ELLIE GOSLEY

The back of Catharine's home after the Middleton brothers left work incomplete. Right, her new kitchen, completed with the help of local tradesmen

Sewerage poured into the room which was previously her kitchen every time she or her daughters flushed the toilet or had a shower.

The back of her house in Tonyrefail, Rhondda Cynon Taf, was completely open to the elements. And parts of her home were so unsafe she couldn't go in them.

The actions of two brothers who had been entrusted to create the kitchen of Catharine's dreams had completely destroyed her life.

She had spent thousands and lived on a building site for months on end just to be left with a ruined home which was freezing cold in the run up to Christmas.

Brothers Nicky and Kyle Middleton, who traded under N&K Kitchens LTD in Rhondda Cynon Taf, were jailed earlier this year for their horrific actions which left multiple victims, including Catharine, almost £125,000 out of pocket.

The 47-year-old mum-of-two said "it was absolutely frightening" as she gradually realised the work she had paid the Middleton brothers to do would not be completed.

After beginning the work in February 2022, the brothers gradually stopped turning up when they said they would.

The 12-week renovation project to knock down an extension and extend her kitchen turned into months of work.

As she realised the work was not getting done, Catharine ended up chasing companies they said they had bought supplies from only to be told they had not even ordered them.

She last saw the pair in December and spent the weeks leading up to Christmas 2022 "begging" them to give some of the money back.

"They tortured me," she said.

"They would apologise and say the bank had blocked them from transferring money from their savings and they said they would get it to me by Monday.

"Monday would come and I would have received nothing.