Homeowners in debt over incomplete building work

A BBC investigation has found a man offering building work promised to carry out jobs but continually let down his clients who paid thousands for his services.

Tom Miles, from Devon, was operating in Gloucestershire. Some of his victims spent up to £30,000 on work that was never completed. Steve Knibbs has been looking into their stories.

"Even the sound of his name was just awful because I just knew he was letting us down. The mess he left us in was just dreadful."

Nicola Biggs-Devereux doesn't mince her words when talking about Tom Miles, a man who who left her and her husband, Richard, nearly £20,000 in debt.

They'd contracted Mr Miles, originally from Hatherleigh in Devon, to build a workshop, office and dog kennels in their garden and paid him their life savings of £30,000, but the work was never finished.

Although he started the job, materials that he claimed had been paid for never turned up, work stopped and he left a quagmire in the garden.

"The only time I would get any sign of work being done is if I had a go at him," said Mr Biggs-Devereux, from Gloucestershire.

"Once I had, you would get two or three days and he would turn up.

"I think it was three weeks, three weeks he didn't even show and just refused to answer texts."

All of this was happening at a stressful time for the couple, whilst Nicola was having surgery for cancer.

"It's bad enough dealing with a cancer diagnosis at the best of times without knowing someone's ripping you off and letting you down and constantly.

"On some days I just felt he was like a cancer just eating away at me constantly," said Mrs Biggs-Devereux.

After a number of heated text messages between them Mr Miles agreed to pay back the money he owed the couple, but it never arrived and they've now had to take out a new loan to get it finished.

The BBC has spoken to several people who also say they had money taken from them by Tom Miles.

One of them is his former girlfriend, Jenny (not her real name).

She met him in Gloucester and soon he started asking for money, at first to pay his employees.

"He said I can't pay them and they need to be paid today because they've got kids," she said.

"You know they've got children, they've got mortgages to pay, they've got bills to pay - he's tugging on all my heartstrings."

Jenny said there was no evidence that the employees existed. Tom Miles also told her about a house for them both to live in in Devon where she is originally from.

Jenny said he convinced her to take out a £6,000 loan and also give him £20,000 she'd inherited from her grandfather to help pay for it, but the house move never happened and the money was never repaid.

She said, in total, Tom Miles took £35,000 from her.

"He made me feel guilty. He said 'I've taken out £100,000, I'm just going to buy it on my own and you're not gonna have anything to do with it.'

"He guilt tripped me massively into giving him this money. What hurts is that my granddad worked so hard for that money.

"I was clever enough when I was 18 to invest it. And that's gone. I'm never going to see that money again," Jenny said.

Bruce Bennett, from the Forest of Dean, is owed £12,000 from Tom Miles. He loaned him £4,500, was convinced to invest in rare breed sheep which never appeared and paid for fencing work that wasn't finished properly.

"He was so plausible, so convincing in his excuses about not paying back I just kept going with it. It's caused so much stress between myself and my family because they all thought how stupid of me to do that.

"They've suffered, we've had to make sacrifices because of the money lost. I feel conned," Mr Bennett told the BBC.

This type of incident falls into a grey area between civil and criminal behaviour - police, trading standards and Action Fraud have all told those involved they're unable to help, so the victims, if they can afford it, are left trying to chase their money through the courts, or hope that Mr Miles will repay them.

"The money is gone and the chances are we're never going to get it back.

"I just want this man stopped and held accountable. Other people need to be protected from this man," said Mrs Biggs-Devereux.

Mr Miles agreed to be interviewed about the allegations on a number of occasions but he cancelled each one, saying he was either ill, had got the date wrong or he pulled out at short notice.

He told the BBC that he was sorry for what had happened and that he was working with a debt repayment charity to ensure that everyone was paid back.

He added that at the time of the allegations he was unwell, and although he didn't agree with everything said about him, he accepted he'd made mistakes and wanted to put things right.

Only Richard and Nicola have received any money. Last month Tom Miles sent them £860 from his own account.

He still owes them more than £18,000. No one else has been contacted by him or a debt repayment company despite him saying people would be receiving their money earlier this month.

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