A widow is warning people not to use a "rogue builder" who received thousands of pounds from her but never completed work on her home.

Shelley Weeks, from Coxheath, spent five years determining how best to invest a lump sum left from husband Wayne’s pension fund following his death from leukaemia aged just 33.

So last year the 43-year-old opted for an extension to her Duke of York Way home, where she lives with son Olly, who was just 18 months old when his dad died.

She commissioned Trigon Property Care for the building work, owned by Christopher Hook.

She claims the builder received £60,000 to complete a single-storey extension at the back of her house but failed to complete the job.

Instead, her back garden was left like a building site, with half a brick wall and hardly any space for Olly, now eight, to play.

In a bid to get justice she took Mr Hook to court, spending more than £13,000 in legal fees and now has a charge on his house.

The order means if he were to sell his home, she would have a claim to receive £70,000, which includes legal costs.

However, she thinks this will be unlikely as others are believed to have orders on his home and therefore also entitled to a share of any sale.

She said: “Even though I knew it was likely my money would be lost I just couldn’t let it go.

“When you lose someone that tragically it puts a lot of things in perspective and money isn’t top of your list any more but I had to feel like I had done everything possible to get justice and get back what was mine.”

Since publishing her story on Facebook, Mrs Weeks’ post has been shared more than 4,000 times and several people have contacted her claiming to have had problems with the builder.

Christopher Hook, who has traded under several business names including Trigon Property Care and Combined Electrical & Security Projects, has four unsettled county court judgements (CCJ) against his name.

The court orders total a debt of more than £85,000. The first dates back to January 2014 for £8,551, issued by Northampton County Court Money Claims Centre. Another record, granted in September of the same year, shows Mr Hook, of Primrose Drive, Ditton, owes another disgruntled customer £3,175.

There was a five-year lull in county court judgements until April 2019, when another, worth £1,232, was issued. The largest sum of debt to date is owed to Mrs Weeks, for a total of £72,391. According to documents seen by the KM, all of these amounts remain unpaid.

Mr Hook declined to comment when contacted by KentOnline.

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