A BUILDER took almost £25,000 from a pensioner to build an extension at his Ludlow property, but the work was slow and sub-standard and was left unfinished, a court heard.

In addition David Brearley had to spend £10,000 to rectify the poor workmanship displayed by 44-year-old Frederick Marsh and his building firm.

The pensioner was so distressed by the experience that he and his wife subsequently decided to move out of the property.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court last week Marsh was jailed for a total of 10 months for offences involving Mr Brearley and two other Shropshire pensioners.

Judge Peter Barrie said that Marsh had abused the trust he had established with the three victims "This sort of behaviour is distressing and upsetting and leaves the victims feeling unhappy in their own homes and makes them feel that they had been made fools off," he said.

Judge Barrie said he had "no confidence" Marsh would have the ability to pay the £18,800 compensation being sought by the victims, but ordered him to hand over £1,700 that was available to the court.

The defendant's business Affordable Property Solutions Ltd, which was based in West Yorkshire and had an office in Telford, was fined £4,000 for breaches of consumer protection regulations.

Marsh, of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, admitted an offence under the Consumer Protection regulations of unfair commercial practice involving Mr Brearley's property at Poyner Road in Ludlow. In addition he had pleaded guilty to four allegations of fraud by false representation on various dates in March and April, 2014, following an inquiry by Shropshire Trading Standards officers.

In March, 2014, Marsh had agreed a £16,000 fee with Mr Brearley to build an extension at the property in Poyner Road, but the work was slow and there were constant delays and the work was largely poor or left unfinished.

A list of more than a dozen defects included appalling plaster work, holes left in the plaster, bowed brick work, failure to fit fascia boards, floors not level, unprotected pipe work, wrongly fitted extractor fan and badly fitted insulation.

Despite the situation Marsh had twice demanded additional payments from the victim and in total extracted £24,500 from Mr Brearley, who later had to pay around £10,000 to have the faults rectified.

The court heard that Marsh took £800 from a pensioner in Little Ness, near Shrewsbury, to treat non-existent woodworm in her attic - an offence described as "barefaced trickery" by the judge - and the defendant had also taken almost £8,000 from a Bishop's Castle woman for solar panels that were never delivered.

Mr Marcus Harry, for Marsh, said that his client, who had been in the building trade since leaving school, was remorseful and had set up the company with good intentions.

He said that Marsh had problems with people running the office in Telford and that his ambition to expand the business had got out of hand and spiralled out of control.