'Callous' builder to pay £41k to victims

OWNERS WERE LEFT HOSTAGES IN OWN HOMES, SAYS JUDGE

- By GARETH LIGHTFOOT

A BUILDER whose incomplete work made customers “hostages in their own homes” has been ordered to pay them compensation.

Christopher Sedgewick, 39, made promises he could not keep to householders who trusted him to finish construction jobs on time, a judge said, telling him: “You accept your guilt and you accept ultimately you could and should have done better. It left them in the lurch in their own homes.”

Judge Advocate Tom Mitchell conceded Sedgewick had worked hard to build a construction business. He said: “I accept that you've previously done solid valuable work for others. And that's the reason why it’s so disappointing, to say the least, to see the way you treated other people.”

He said Sedgewick was “on warning from trading standards by letter” following three complaints and should have regulated his business despite problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“You had to make sure you did not make promises you could not keep,” he added. “People’s lives depended - livelihoods depended - on the work you were doing for them.”

The judge told Teesside Crown Court on Friday how Sedgewick was paid over £63,000 for an extension by an Ingleby Barwick couple, who eventually had to pay another £40,000 in order to put right his incomplete, “shoddy” and “substandard” work.

Sedgewick demanded payment, terminated the contract, threatened legal action and inflated his quote by over £25,000 midway through the job, without notice, explanation or justification.