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Rogue builder's botched jobs costs householders tens of thousands to repair
![Sep 13, 2023](/themes/hestia/images/news-details-icon1.webp)
A judge said the quality of Scott Keane's building work had been "wholly inadequate"
A rogue roofer has been jailed for a series of shoddy jobs on people's house, including one done while he was on a suspended prison handed down sentence for similar offending.
Scott Keane has left householders out of pocket to the tune of thousands of pounds and facing having the expense and stress of getting the work on their homes done again thanks to his botched attempts. His advocate said the dad-of-two felt guilty and shame for his actions.
Tim Evans, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that in April 2021 Keane was engaged by a householder to replace the old felt flat roof on his kitchen with a new fibreglass one - the householder also wanted it strong enough to serve as a roof terrace. A price of £1,950 was agreed for the work. However the customer immediately became concerned about patches of exposed fibreglass on the new roof and about the strong smell in the kitchen - Keane assured him these issues would disappear as the roof dried out. In fact the problems continued and then within a few days the roof started lifting away from the facia boards. A specialist was called in to examine the job, and he found a catalogue of problems which meant the newly laid roof was not safe had to be removed and replaced at a cost of more than £2,000.
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The second set of offending which Keane fell to be sentenced for involved work he did at a house in Milford Haven in July this year which saw him taking down a chimney and making good the roof. The court heard the householder had approached Keane after seeing his Pembrokeshire Roofing Services van in the street - at this stage the householder did not know the defendant's name. Again there were problems with the work - there were issues with the new tiles and lead flashing and with the bricks of the chimney which had been taken down below the roofline causing problems in a neighbour's attic.
The householder only learned Keane's name when he came to pay the £1,500 agreed for the job and was given the defendant's personal bank account details rather than a business account. Concerned at the quality of the work he searched for Keane's name online and found out about his earlier conviction. The court heard that in January this year Keane had been given a suspended prison sentence at Swansea Crown Court after pleading guilty to trading offences again relating to roofing work. This offence had seen the defendant charging a disabled woman £8,000 to replace a flat roof on her house - however the work was done to a poor standard and leaked, and needed £6,000 of remedial work.
Pembrokeshire Council's trading standards department was contacted about the chimney job, and a examined the roof - again the work was found to be of a poor quality and it was estimated it would cost £1,500 plus VAT to put it right.
Scott Keane, aged 41, of St David's Close, Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, had previously pleaded guilty to six offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Jon Tarrant said was it was accepted the offences relating to the chimney had taken place relatively shortly after the imposition of the suspended sentence. He said the defendant's "reputation had been destroyed by press coverage" of the previous conviction and he had been struggling to find work. He said when his client had been approached about doing the chimney job he made the "rash decision" to do it as he was under financial pressures.
The advocate said Keane has now found with a builder which meant he was in "a position to make recompense those who he has wronged", and he said the father-of-two felt "guilt and shame" for what he had done.
Judge Geraint Walters told Keane the work he had done had been "shoddy" and "wholly inadequate", and that he could properly be called a "rogue builder". He said the law required him to activate the previously suspended prison sentence unless it would unjust to do so, and given all the circumstances in the case he could not find it would be unjust. The judge sentenced Keane to six months in prison for the new offences and activated four months of the previously imposed suspended sentence to run consecutively making an overall sentence of 10 months in prison. Keane will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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