Couple left £10,000 out despite winning court case against 'cowboy' builder

19 October 2023 , 09:20

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Cathy has been left being owed £10,000 and feeling let down by the justice system which she says failed to help her (Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)

A couple have been left thousands of pounds out of pocket, even after they won their court battle against a “cowboy” builder.

Catherine Newcombe and husband Stephen had wanted to have their driveway redone in 2016, at their home in south Yorkshire, to help home their caravan. They thought little about hiring a building firm they’d seen in the local paper. Little did they know, seven years later they would be stuck almost £10,000 down, with a driveway they described as left “like a building site”.

Alongside that, Cathy said she was left feeling “abandoned” and “let down” by the justice system that, she said, failed to back up its ruling and help them. Cathy and Stephen had hired Sean Smith, then working under the company Advanced Builders, for the job.

Cathy's driveway was left a 'building site' (Catherine Newcombe)

Cathy said: “We didn’t want anything too fancy, it was just a concrete drive for the twin-wheel caravan. They made a complete mess and when they ordered the concrete it all came in one afternoon, they tried to get it all down and it should’ve been done in three sections, not one afternoon. The concrete was going off quicker than they could get it down. It was an eyesore, there was spillage all over, it was absolutely awful.”

She compared her driveway to a “building site” and from there things only got worse. The couple claim Smith inconsistently appeared to do work on the driveway and despite promising completion in nine days it was still an unfinished mess weeks later. Things got so bad that the couple took the builders to court. They paid out of their own pocket for an expert witness and independent inspector who said their driveway “wasn’t fit for purpose” and “effectively needed digging up and relaying”.

Leopard breaks into court and injures several people before being locked in cage

Builder Sean Smith, who did the work on Cathy's drive (Internet/Unknown)

An independent expert said their driveway effectively needed ripping up during court proceedings (Catherine Newcombe)

Cathy and Stephen won in court and were awarded £4,800 damages. However, over the following year, they didn’t receive a penny in payment, leaving them massively out of pocket, and with a wrecked driveway still. “We were distraught, distressed, we didn’t know who to go to … we went back to the court and asked for help,” she said. They were directed towards a mediator but here Cathy, 61, said that Smith claimed he could only afford £30 a month repayments.

The works were supposed to take 9 days but stretched on for weeks without being completed (Catherine Newcombe)

The couple were left horrified at the offer that would leave them waiting over 13 years to get their money back in full. The court ruling, and getting their money back then took a back seat as Stephen’s health took a turn for the worse, leading to him needing three back surgeries, and then the onset of the Covid pandemic.

However, later in 2021, the couple wanted to give it another stab at getting back the money they were owed, as ruled by a court of law. They went to High Court Enforcement where Smith offered £100 a month as repayment - an offer they accepted. But once again, the money wasn’t forthcoming, and an enforcement company had no luck in getting the money from him - all the time the couple’s personal bill was racking up higher and higher.

Stephen and Cathy Newcombe, from Barnsley, Yorkshire (Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)

So at the beginning of this year, in one final effort, they decided to try and return to the courts to get Smith to pay up. The couple contacted the courts and had to pay £450 to get a hearing at Barnsley Law Court, Smith dropped his previous monthly repayment offer from £100 to £80.

Describing themselves as “desperate” the couple nearly accepted, but asked if the court could look into Smith’s finances, so he had to prove why he could only offer such a low figure. A second hearing was arranged for June 1 this year, where the builder could produce the necessary information on his finances.

The couple spent years going through the bureaucracy of the justice system trying to get what they were told they were due - but feel like they've been 'failed' (Catherine Newcombe)

But in front of a new judge, the hearing barely lasted a few minutes before it was struck out for abuse of process, leaving Cathy devastated, her trust in the judicial system obliterated as her final effort to get justice went up in smoke. The judge told them the case never should have been let back into the courtroom at that level as the couple had already received rulings and been to mediation - despite the courts taking £450 from Cathy and booking them in.

Despite winning in court, Cathy's never seen a penny of money and now has been left faithless in the country's justice system (Catherine Newcombe)

Cathy said: “We felt absolutely numb. I just felt absolutely sick. I’ve got no faith now, why did they take our £450? The courts should have written to us and said this judgement has been awarded and you cannot bring it back under existing claim. Why did they bring it on?”

The mum has been left lacking faith in a justice system which refused to enforce its own rulings, leaving her so much out of pocket with no clear solution in sight. The Judicial Office decline to comment on individual cases. To date, the couple have received nothing by way of repayment. Sean Smith failed to respond to requests for comment.

Kieren Williams