Leamington cowboy builder on national TV

THE CASE of a notorious cowboy builder from Leamington has featured on national TV.

Channel 5's 'Cowboy Builders' - shown on January 24 - investigated Paul Henstone, who left a trail of shoddy and unfinished work at houses across Leamington, Stratford, Solihull and Coventry.

The show's presenter approached the 41-year-old as he left Leamington Magistrates Court but he refused to comment.

Subsequently, in December, he was jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to three counts of fraud and a further charge of acting as a director of a company having been declared bankrupt.

The show focussed on the case of single mother from Solihull who spent £11,000 extending her home to accommodate her seriously ill mother but the local builder she hired – which turned out to be Henstone - was hardly ever on site, and eight weeks into the build he was dismissed, leaving behind a half-finished extension riddled with structural problems.

The Observer has previously reported on similar incidents in Leamington.

On our front page in June 2009 we revealed the story of Prospect Road residents Sangeeta Prabhakar and her husband Rohit, who were conned out of £58,000 by Henstone.

They were forced to spend two years living in just two rooms on what was effectively a building site after the disastrous, unfinished, work was carried out.

On the Channel 5 programme it was revealed a string of other cases has been reported. Henstone's address was given in court as Bankfield Drive.