A rogue builder who left homeowners facing unfinished projects, leaking roofs and cracked ceilings after taking more than £1million has been sentenced to prison.
Patrick Damien Hartley, 52, was branded one of the “most prolific and heartless” fraudsters ever encountered by Lancashire County Council.
Hartley took more than £700,000 from 13 households across north-west England. Many victims were then forced to spend thousands of pounds more completing or repairing the work he had abandoned.
In one distressing video, rain can be seen hammering onto a homeowner’s kitchen table. Other footage shows half-built extensions filled with rubbish and building debris.
Photographs supplied by victims show homes left raised on stilts, while scaffolding remained beside walls with no windows installed.
Lancashire County Council began investigating Hartley after homeowners approached the authority in September 2022.
The inquiry established that he had repeatedly taken payment for costly work he failed to complete. Earlier this year, Hartley admitted fraud and consumer protection offences committed between 2020 and 2023.
He was jailed for three years and nine months at Preston Crown Court, although victims criticised the sentence as too lenient.
Patrick Damien Hartley, 52, left homeowners thousands of pounds out of pocket after abandoning construction projects
Footage captured the damage left behind by the rogue builder, including cracks in victims’ ceilings
Some extensions were left far from finished, with homeowners paying as much as £89,000 to make Hartley’s work safe and compliant
Phillippa Edgar, 48, paid Hartley almost £100,000 over eight months for a single-storey rear extension and a two-storey side garage extension at her home in Stockport, Greater Manchester.
The mother-of-two had agreed to an overall price of about £105,000, with the building work expected to take just ten weeks.
Instead, the project was abandoned before it was finished. Ms Edgar was left having to spend up to £89,000 on remedial work to make the structure safe and bring it into line with building regulations.
She said the project had been intended to create her “dream home”, but became a deeply distressing ordeal.
Ms Edgar said the experience caused immense stress and affected every part of family life, including her children’s schooling and her marriage.
She described Hartley as a conman who repeatedly offered excuses and misleading explanations for failing to finish the work.
The extensions were ultimately left as little more than two brick shells, she said, while the family’s hard-earned money had disappeared.
With the roof left open, rain poured into the house and flooded it so severely that the family had to use a pump to remove the water.
Ms Edgar said Hartley’s conduct had been utterly appalling and that he deserved to spend a long time behind bars.
Another victim was Joanne Dagostina, 42, who in November 2021 was provided a quote of £34,800 for an extension and fitted kitchen at her semi-detached three-bed home in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
Work started in January 2022 but further jobs were later agreed, including the installation of a damp proof course to the existing property and a new bathroom.
But by August 2022 Ms Dagostina decided to sack Hartley, having already paid him £64,216.
A fan fitting at one of the homes which Hartley was hired to work on
Poorly attached tarpaulin on the roof of a home in Lancashire which the cowboy builder worked on
Hartley left Phillippa Edgar’s house in a state of ruin after he was handed almost £100,000 to build a garage extension
Tarpaulin is seen over Ms Edgar’s home, leaving the roof open to rain and the home’s interior susceptible to flooding
It was only after a structural engineer came to the house that she found out he hadn’t installed any steel beams. It meant the woman’s roof could collapse ‘at any moment’.
Ms Dagostina said: ‘The blatant lack of care and disrespect to put my family in danger is unforgivable.
‘The engineer told me the extension ceiling was failing by 200 per cent and to prop it as soon as possible.
‘He said it would collapse if we didn’t and if it did it would take the next-door neighbours with it – I was furious.
‘I am disappointed with his sentencing as to me it was premeditated and he knew how to take advantage.’
Pelin Akin, 49, and Wellington Tsang, 55, also fell victim to Hartley, losing over £105,000 in the process.
They approached him for a loft conversion with a dormer window as well as a driveway at their three-bed house in Sale, Greater Manchester.
Hartley quoted £48,000 with the work starting in April 2021, but by June the Senior Travel Consultant said construction had ‘slowed down’ before he left the site in early 2022.
He said the renovations would take eight weeks to complete. Including other agreed work, Ms Akin paid him £47,500 but had ‘no roof and an empty attic to show for it’.
The family has since had the building work completed by a reputable trader at a cost of £59,000.
Approximately £8,000 of that expense was used to correct Hartley’s work and bring it into compliance with building control requirements.
She said: ‘The excuses he gave for the work not being completed were ridiculous – they included his workers being drunk and his and the van needing its MoT.
‘Hartley started with being very accommodating.
‘But when we started challenging him for why he wasn’t on the site his messages became more threatening.
‘My work suffered, I was signed off with stress. I added lots of cameras and security to our home just in case he or his representatives decided to visit us.
Joanna Dagostina’s kitchen in Oldham, Greater Manchester, is seen in a state of disrepair
Ms Dagostina eventually decided to sack Hartley having already paid him £64,216
Dirt and rubbish is left strewn across the ground in Pelin Akin and Wellington Tsang’s property
‘I am starting to relax knowing that he is behind bars.’
More victims included a couple in Bacup, Lancashire, who were left devastated when their plans to take in an elderly relative and provide her with end-of-life care went wrong when Hartley failed to complete an extension for her.
The homeowner’s mother spent her final days in the front room of the property, which had no heating or hot water.
The Lancashire Trading Standards investigation into Hartley was assisted by officers from other local authorities, GMP and Lancashire Constabulary.
He was charged with criminal offences involving 13 different households in Lancashire and Greater Manchester in 2023.
Then, in March 2024, he formally entered not guilty pleas to 26 offences under the Fraud Act 2006 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and his case was listed for trial in June 2025.
In May 2025, he pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud under the Fraud Act 2006 and three counts under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
Alongside his prison sentence, Hartley was given a seven-year criminal behaviour order stopping him from owning a business which takes part in private building work.
His case is currently the subject of confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, according to the Trading Standards.
Councillor Joshua Roberts, cabinet member for Rural Affairs, Environment and Communities, described Hartley as ‘one of the most prolific and heartless fraudsters’ that the council has come across.
