A rogue builder who left a pensioner’s roof in ruin and then blew £30,000 on a Lanzarote holiday has been brought to account as trading standards launch a long-overdue clampdown on cowboy operators.
The case, uncovered by our investigation, centres on 62-year-old victim Margaret Hollis of St Albans. She paid Anthony Briggs £45,000 after he promised to replace her leaking roof. Instead, he did a botched patch job that collapsed within weeks, causing £20,000 in additional damage to her living room and bedroom. While she struggled to afford repairs, Briggs and his wife took a luxurious trip to the Canary Islands, spending £30,000 on flights, five-star accommodation and high-end dining.
‘He was charming at first, gave me a cup of tea and a quote that was half of anyone else’s,’ Hollis told us from her damp-ridden home. ‘Now I’m living with tarpaulins and buckets. He said he was a family man. I trusted him.’
Internal documents from Hertfordshire Trading Standards, obtained under freedom of information laws, reveal that Briggs had been flagged by 12 separate complainants since 2018. Yet enforcement action was repeatedly delayed due to budget cuts and staff shortages. The local authority’s consumer protection team now has just three inspectors covering 200 square miles.
‘It’s a numbers game,’ said a source within the team, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ‘You prioritise cases where immediate harm is clear. But as long as these guys stay one step ahead of the system, the public pays for their holidays.’
At long last, Briggs was handed a 10-month suspended sentence and a five-year ban from trading in the UK. Yet he was allowed to keep his company’s assets. Meanwhile, the government’s new national trading standards unit, launched last month, claims it will cut down on such abuses. But critics see it as a fig leaf for years of underfunding.
‘This is a welcome step, but it’s a drop in the ocean,’ said James Wilson, a consumer rights lawyer who has handled dozens of similar cases. ‘Without real investment and proper licensing, rogue builders will keep using our money as their personal cash machine.’
The scale of the problem is staggering. According to data from the UK Advertising Standards Authority, complaints against rogue builders rose 47 per cent in the last three years, to over 60,000 annually. The average loss per victim is £8,500. Many victims are elderly or vulnerable, targeted because they lack the knowledge to challenge inflated quotes or shoddy work.
For Briggs, the Lanzarote trip proved his undoing. The credit card used to book the holiday was later traced to his business account. But it took a dogged neighbour of Hollis, a retired accountant, to spot the suspicious transactions and report them to the police. ‘If it wasn’t for him, Briggs would probably be sitting on another beach right now,’ Hollis said.
Trading standards officers concede that prosecutions are rare. In 2023, only 134 builder-related cases resulted in court action across England and Wales. The new unit promises to share intelligence between local authorities, but it lacks statutory powers to force compliance.
‘It’s a step in the right direction, but the bar is so low it’s practically on the floor,’ said our source. ‘What we need is a mandatory register for all contractors, with financial checks and insurance requirements. Anything less lets the rogues keep robbing.’
As for Hollis, she has been told she may never recover her money. Her roofer’s former company has been dissolved, and Briggs is now believed to be working informally on building sites in Portugal. ‘The system has failed me twice,’ she said. ‘First by letting him do this, then by letting him walk away.’
The government has promised a new consumer protection bill later this year. For now, the only message being sent to rogue builders is that if you pick the right victims and blow the cash fast enough, you can get away with it.
