Doing It Yourself: how I was scammed by a cowboy builder - and how to protect yourself

TL; DR: do a DIY course

I’ve recently lost over £20K to a cowboy builder, and it’s made me wonder if there’s anything that women can do to protect ourselves from scammers.

Last spring, after the inquest into my husband’s death concluded, the company with whom we had life insurance finally made a payout. I wanted to spend a bit on things in the house, for my daughters. We’d only just moved into our house when my husband died, so for the previous eighteen months, we’d been tripping over boxes, with many elements of the house only half-working. I wanted to give over a corner of the garden to the kids, so I built a climbing frame from a kit, and paid a reputable local company to do some other bits, including putting up a little summerhouse as a hang out zone for the girls.

I became friendly with one of the builders on that project, who told me that he was planning on setting up as an independent tradesman, with a specialism in bathroom fitting. Two of my daughters’ bedrooms had small en-suite bathrooms that didn…