Rogue Limerick tradesman forced to return money to pensioner after roof repairs unfinished

A MAN IN his late 70s, who is battling cancer, has suffered great trauma after engaging rogue tradesmen to repair a roof.

The family of the victim of rogue tradesmen from Limerick has raised the alarm after their ordeal.

The son of the man who paid over €8,500 to tradesmen has praised the gardaí for their intervention, which resulted in the money being returned to the victim.

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“It is a one in a million. Nobody ever gets their money back from these people, but great praise is due to the gardaí in Clonmel for recovering the money,” said the son of the elderly man.

He explained that his father engaged the tradesmen from county Limerick after seeing an advertisement.

He said his father had just received an upsetting setback concerning his battle with cancer and he did not want to leave his family with a problem roof to sort out in his town centre house in Clonmel.

The roof was leaking and the chimney also needed work. The tradesmen came on a Monday and he rang his father to see what progress was made.

The roof was stripped on the Monday and there was less and less work done as the days went by.

“By Thursday the alarm bell started to go off as they were looking for the other €3,500 to pay for the full job. At this stage my father knew he had been had and I rang the gardaí,” said the man’s son.

“My father was left with a half done roof, done with very sub-standard material and nothing was done to the chimney,” said the son of the man.

“My father was very upset, very embarrassed and vomiting as a result of the stress caused by what was happening.

“I spoke to Sgt Seamus Moran and he, with others, went on the case after I gave them the mobile my father used to contact these people. The tradesmen were told they would be arrested if the money was not returned and on Friday the money was dropped into the garda station in Clonmel in an envelope,” he said.

“The gardaí were brilliant, at least my father recovered all of the money he had paid over but it still caused him a huge amount of upset and trauma.

“He has since spoken to other people of his own age around the town and they have been conned out of money for poorly done jobs, not so much money but smaller amounts like €500 for power washing or some small jobs like that,” he said.

Mayor of Clonmel Cllr Pat English called on people to be vigilant before engaging anybody to carry out work on their house.
He appealed to people to consult their own family, their neighbours and friends and make enquiries about the company involved.

“This man was very ill, living on his own and vulnerable. People are losing their life savings or money they have put away for funeral costs because of these rogue tradesmen,” he said.

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Cllr English said he could see over the few days when the tradesmen were at the house that they were not using the proper equipment.

“They had no scaffolding which to me looked unusual for that type of job. It is very important that people who need to have work carried out on their houses talk to other people before taking anybody on to do it,” said Cllr English.