A 'COWBOY' builder has been branded a "repulsive parasite" for taking £11,200 from customers – before leaving them with their homes "in ruins".

Thomas Dorney is accused of scamming residents, leaving one OAP homeless for a week.

Craig Wilson and his partner Rhys Evans, 38, say they forked out £9,705 but Dorney disappeared as his "baby was poorly".

Craig, 43, from Cheadle, Manchester, said: "It was horrendous. From that very first phone call, it was about scamming as much money from us [as possible].

"After that became clear I felt sick. I thought 'why didn't we see this before?'

"The money we paid him worked out at £9,705 in total. We'll never see any of that anyway.

"And to redo his work? We stopped counting at over £60,000. It's just too depressing."

ROOF COLLAPSED

Interior designer Craig added: "I suffer badly with anxiety and depression and have for 17 years, but to see Rhys who's always been really strong break down, I was panicking.

"We were going to lose the house and it got to the point where we couldn't even afford to get it fixed."

Craig claims they held on to the workman's tools in an attempt to get their money back but police threatened to arrest THEM.

They were forced to camp in their home with a sheet of tarpaulin to keep out the rain, until their house eventually flooded and the roof began "falling down".

Craig said: "The tarpaulin was held over the roof with batons. When we had horrendous rain, it collapsed in and the house flooded.

"He kept saying there'd been mistakes with the steel needed for the work and we forwarded more money for that. That was £525.

I contacted Thomas to say 'what have you done? I can't believe the mess you've made. He was threatening me saying he'd send people round for his tools

"He then called me down. He said 'your boiler's completely knackered. It's a crap one and it's completely gone'. It'd cost £800 to repair it but it wasn't worth it, or £8,000 for a new one.

"I told him we had no money whatsoever. I was literally looking at bits of jewellery we could sell because we had no money left at all."

The house was covered in exposed wires while the electricity was still turned on and Craig noticed their new roof was starting to cave in, with tiles cracking and popping off.

After confronting Dorney by text, Craig says he received a furious call demanding his tools back.

Craig said: "I contacted Thomas to say 'what have you done? I can't believe the mess you've made. I'm not happy with you being on the job anymore. It's done'.

"He was threatening me saying he'd send people round for his tools.

"The police said 'nothing we can do, we don't have the resources to even call him, but if you don't give the tools back we'll arrest you'. I thought 'oh great'."

Pensioner Mary Doherty, 68, hired Dorney in January 2018, but claims after handing over £1,500 he "complained of a headache" and she never saw him again.

The Grandmother-of-two, from Gorton, Manchester, was approached by Dorney after putting an advert online saying she wanted a new bathroom.

She claimed she was "homeless" for a week and had to move in with her son.

'SOUL DESTROYING'

Mary said: "He's a serial, repulsive parasite – that's what he is. It destroys you. It's soul destroying.

"I just feel dead annoyed with myself for being so taken.He left it right through with all the excuses under the sun.

"The following Monday he came out and left me two brochures telling me to pick the whole suite out of that.

"I explained that I'd found my suite in Oldham but he said 'no no, pick from this because I get 25% off being a builder' and he wanted £1,500 in cash.

"Like an idiot I went and got the money out. I never saw him after that ever again.

"He then came in later in the afternoon saying 'oh my head', called his mate to say he was going to have to drive him to the hospital.

"I gave him a paracetamol and told him I'd found a bathroom that I wanted. He went out the door and I didn't see him after that."

The three customers successfully took Dorney to court but say they are yet to receive the money awarded.

Mary claims to have text messages from Dorney confirming he had seen the county court judgement.

Dorney admitted some jobs "haven't gone right", but denied knowing who Mary even was and said many people were "jumping on the band wagon".

'TOTALLY UNTRUE'

When contacted for comment, Dorney claimed he did not know who Mary was and that he had no knowledge of the county court judgements against him.

Dorney, from Denton, Manchester, said: "There's a lot of this that is totally untrue.

"Don't get me wrong, there's been some jobs that haven't gone right, but everyone's jumping on the band wagon.

"I don't even know that customer [Mary]. I don't recall that job. Are you sure you've got the right business?

"I don't even know anything about [the county court judgement]. I've not even had anything [to my address].

"I've thousands of jobs that are really happy.

"There were other people there. I didn't physically do the work. It might not necessarily be me that did that particular job."

Greater Manchester Police were contacted for comment.

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