Jail for Mansfield conman who left victims facing huge repair bills for shoddy building work

Simon Horsfield carried out “a thoroughly shabby and cruel criminal enterprise” by lying to get contracts, obtain extra payment and fob angry customers off, between January 2014 and September 2018, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

Daniel Lister, prosecuting, said: "One family was forced to sell not only their home but the home that was built by their parents."

One victim, a pensioner, had to borrow money to demolish and rebuild the £22,000 orangery that had ‘water running down the walls’, rising damp and an open drain in it. She had to sell her property to cover the additional costs.

Another victim, who was a full-time carer to his disabled wife, paid £13,500 for adaptations to their home. Once the work was ‘complete’, the couple were quoted up to £7,000 by reputable firms, for remedial work.

A legitimate building company that Horsfield worked for on a self-employed basis, Right Frame, also lost £120,000 in contracts he siphoned off for himself, diverting money to his own accounts.

Jailing him for five years, Ms Recorder Penelope Stanistreet-Keen told Horsfield, “you sold your victims a dream, but lacked the skill to provide what you promised” by recruiting incompetent tradesmen and walking away from jobs “when things went disastrously wrong”.

She said: “Even now you struggle to accept your responsibility and portray yourself as a victim. You have undoubtedly ruined your own life and that of your family.”

Horsfield, aged 48, of Kirkland Avenue, Mansfield, was convicted of four counts of making false representations to prospective customers and creditors by failing to exercise the standard of care and skill expected of competent tradesmen, by a jury.

The court heard he “acted as a team with Simon Brown”, whom he met at a New Year’s Eve party in 2013 and who died in July 2019, leaving him criminally liable.

The judge said: “Your head was turned and you saw an opportunity to make money by making 10 per cent commission by working for multiple building firms.”

However, it was never a viable business and made losses from day one because of Horsfield’s “breathtaking combination of naivety and arrogance”.

He had no understanding of tax, or building control, and used information from Google to set up as a builder, Ms Recorder Stanistreet-Keen said.

Horsfield presented a competent image and used computer design images on a laptop “to convince customers he knew what he was doing.”

She said: “You thought it was a licence to print money. These people used their hard-earned savings to pay for home improvements. None of them could afford to lose money.”

Carolina Bracken, mitigating, said “some of this offending is almost a decade old” and, because he has worked legitimately for the last five years,there should be a commensurate reduction of his sentence.

She said there was no evidence of lavish lifestyle and he went into debt to keep the business afloat.

Horsfield, of previous good character, has no interest in being a director ever again, Ms Bracken added, and argued the sentence could be suspended because of the impact custody would have on his family.

He was disqualified from running a company for 15 years and an order to recover his ill-gotten gains was made under the Proceeds of Crime Act.