Michael Parr, 55, was sentenced to two years and eight months after Andy and Lisa Clarke paid the ‘cowboy builder’ £98,000 for a home extension he never completed
A “cowboy builder” has been sentenced to prison after swindling a family out of £100,000 for a new extension, only to leave their home in a state of disrepair.
Andy Clarke, 46, and his then-pregnant wife, Lisa Clark, 43, handed over £98,000 to Michael Parr, now 55, to add a fifth bedroom and an extra bathroom to their home, which included the construction of an additional floor and roof replacement. However, after three months of work, Parr and his team abruptly stopped showing up, leaving the family’s home shrouded in scaffolding, exposed to the elements, and without the promised extension.
The distraught couple from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, were compelled to fork out another £150,000 to a different firm to finish the job. They believe the stress of the situation contributed to a miscarriage Lisa, a teacher, suffered while their home was in ruins.
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Parr received a sentence of two years and eight months at Nottingham Crown Court on October 3. Consulting division lead Andy said: “Everything seemed perfectly fine on the face of it – he seemed like a reasonable guy.
“But soon we’d been left with a house that was torn to bits. The stress throughout that was horrendous – and it was thought to be one of the triggers of the miscarriage.
“He didn’t acknowledge us when we walked past him in court. There aren’t words to describe him or the situation. We’re pleased to have finally drawn a line under this and pleased he got a prison sentence – but we still feel very angry.”
Andy and Lisa first encountered Parr in January 2019 when seeking a quotation, and after inspecting his previous work and reading glowing testimonials from clients, they settled on a price tag of £106,900. The couple re-mortgaged their property to fund the renovation, handing over an initial payment of £33,881, with construction commencing that April.
They’d been assured the job would be wrapped up by August. Andy recalled: “As the work went on, nothing looked particularly out of place.”
He added: “It all seemed to be within the scope of what we needed doing.” However, as weeks passed and despite the couple continuing their weekly payments, Parr and his team’s visits became increasingly sporadic.
Andy described how Parr trotted out a litany of justifications – ranging from suppliers collapsing to adverse weather conditions – before he disappeared entirely in July 2019. That same month, Andy handed over the second-to-last instalment, retaining a final £8,000 payment for when the project was finished.
Come August, Andy’s concerns were mounting. When challenged, Parr claimed via text messages and emails that he required additional time. Andy explained: “He said the roof trusses had been delayed. Then he said he couldn’t do work in the rain.” The realisation soon dawned: “It became clear he wasn’t coming back.”
Faced with Andy’s threat of legal proceedings, Parr gave assurances that the trusses would arrive by December 17. Yet nothing materialised, Parr disappeared without trace, and Andy subsequently contacted the police.
Andy brought in a chartered surveyor to evaluate what had been completed. His findings were damning: “The surveyor said approximately 30% of the work had been done.”
Even more troubling: “But half of that needed re-doing because it was done to a poor standard.” To finance the work, the couple extracted an additional £50k of equity from their house, supplemented by loans, credit card payments and a bonus Andy received from his job.
The project wasn’t completed until August 2022 – 16 months after Parr began. He stated: “We were cobbling everything together – everything else went by the wayside.”
Meanwhile, police investigations uncovered that Andy and Lisa weren’t Parr’s only victims. Parr admitted to two counts of fraud by false representation. One count was related to Andy and Lisa, and the second pertained to another victim in Northamptonshire who paid over £35,000 to Parr. A proceeds of crime hearing is scheduled for January 16.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Andy said: “For a time it was very stressful and we thought we’d never see an end to it. Now the sentencing is over, we’re relieved to finally draw a line under it all. If the courts have decided it comes with a prison sentence, it might deter other scammers.”
After Parr received his sentence in October, Nottinghamshire Police Detective Constable Carl Miller said: “Parr conned victims out of considerable sums of money and his deceitful offending had a significant impact upon them. I’d like to thank them for helping detectives to expose his crimes.
“Jobs he had been hired to do were left uncompleted and the little work he did do was dangerous and substandard, requiring further outlays to correct. This case is a reminder that Nottinghamshire Police takes fraud extremely seriously and will take robust action against those who commit such offences. We are more than willing to devote hours of meticulous detective work to ensure they are brought to justice.”
