A READING rogue builder has been sentenced to six years in jail after conning Birmingham residents out of thousands of pounds for dangerous or unfinished building work.

Waylen Butt, 49, of Waylen Street, carried out little or no work on multiple building projects he had been paid to do by 12 victims between February 2019 and September 2020.

Home extensions, kitchen replacements, roofing, and electrical and plumbing work were either not finished or so dangerous upon completion they had to be demolished.

Investigators found Butt, operating as WB infrastructure Ltd, was in receipt of £152,500 from the dozen scammed West Midlands residents he scammed.

Tony Quigley, Head of Trading Standards at Birmingham City Council, said: “This rogue trader set up a business as a builder when he had little or no experience of building projects which citizens spent thousands of pounds on, in the hope it will improve their homes.

“Instead the ‘world-class service’ Butt’s victims believed they were going to get resulted in dangerous buildings that had to be demolished, at a further cost.

“Our Trading Standards officers work hard to bring fraudulent traders like this to justice and to help protect consumers across the city from being misled – and I’m glad there will be some recompense for some of his victims.”

WB Infrastructure Ltd is no longer in operation.

In October 2016, Butt was jailed for four years after defrauding 32 Gumtree users out of £50,000.

He promised to deliver cars to clients after selling them on the free site but on several occasions never delivered them and failed to issue refunds.

When customers sent deposits or full payments to Butt he promised delivery within days but when he didn't, he pretended refunds had been made by cheque.

Those who did receive cars often ended up with faulty ones and were offered more expensive ones in exchange as part of a new deal which resulted in more of the victims' money being taken.