A rogue builder has landed more than £16,000 in fines and court costs after pleading guilty to a breach in professional diligence towards a Stourbridge couple.

In a case brought by Dudley Trading Standards on June 19, Walsall Magistrates court heard how the homeowners approached Thomas Hickin, aged 38, from Long Itchington in Southam, for work to install brick slips to the front of their property in 2021.

Trading under the business name of Brickslip Brothers, Hickin quoted £4,250 for the work and took a deposit of £3,187.50, for which no receipt was provided.

The work was scheduled to start in June 2021, however due to issues related to the pandemic, it was delayed until September 2021.

Hickin subsequently made several delays due to personal circumstances and the homeowners eventually asked to cancel the work in December 2021. The pair were informed materials had already been cut to size, meaning they were unable to cancel the contract, but despite repeated attempts from the homeowners to get the work done. the service and materials were not provided.

In March 2022, work had still not started and the couple contacted Dudley’s trading standards team. Hickin advised that as trading standards were now involved, he would not carry out the work but would drop off the materials, which he never did.

Trading standards then visited Hickin’s trading address and it was discovered he had not been based at the address since March 2021. When the team contacted Hickin to ask where materials were stored, he said they were at his business address, but officers advised him they had visited that site and no materials were found.

Hickin continued not to cooperate with trading standards, other than arranging a delivery date for the materials, which were eventually delivered in October 2022. However, he did not supply the correct number of brick slips and the ones that were delivered were of poor quality.

A Member of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors was instructed to examine the materials delivered, who confirmed there were not enough brick slips and those supplied were not the correct size or quality. The materials estimated value was believed to be around £615.

Hickin pleaded guilty to a single offence contrary to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUT 2008).

The magistrates said before sentencing that they noted Hickin had delayed and misled the homeowners, putting forward excuses that were not credible and that as work had not been carried out, it had caused a lot of stress and anxiety to the Stourbridge couple.

The court sentenced Hickin to a fine of £1,350, compensation of £3,500 to the victims, a further compensation of £500 for stress and anxiety, a victim surcharge £540 and costs totalling £10,480. A total of £16,370.

Councillor Phil Atkins, cabinet member for development and regulation, said: “Our trading standards team works tirelessly to seek justice for our residents and this case is a reminder that we will not hesitate to act against rogue traders.

“It was clear that Mr Hickin had no intention of returning the deposit or delivering the correct materials but when our team got involved he supplied useless materials, so they investigated and carried out this successful prosecution.”