Construction boss banned for failing to complete £300,000 of work

An Essex home improvements firm director has been banned for eight years for failing to complete more than £300,000 of building work.

Fairweather Construction Ltd boss Samantha Fairweather was disqualified after the company accepted payments for projects when it was insolvent.

The company, established in December 2014, marketed itself as a home improvement specialist, focused on properties around the Essex and Hertfordshire border.

The 53-year-old was the sole director of the firm when it sought advice from an insolvency practitioner in April 2022, owing more than £100,000 in unpaid tax. 

The company took deposits from homeowners worth more than £150,000 by this time for home improvement work it had not finished. 

Fairweather Construction then took a further £177,900 in payments for further uncompleted building projects.

This included £37,370 in deposits for new work, before it was liquidated in September 2022 with liabilities of more than £700,000. 

A couple from south London paid Fairweather Construction £12,500 for new windows in July 2022, meanwhile the firm took £18,000 from customers in Bishop’s Stortford for new conservatory and extensions. 

Fairweather also caused her company to breach the Covid Bounce Back Loan Scheme in May 2020 by using £11,000 of the £50,000 she obtained to repay a director’s loan. 

The payments were not for the economic benefit of the business as they had to be under the rules of the scheme. 

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, accepted the disqualification undertaking from Fairweather, with her ban beginning on 21 October. 

Neil North, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Samantha Fairweather knew, or ought to have known, that the company she was a director of had unpaid debts to HMRC and had been unable to fulfill its obligations to existing customers. 

“The company then took significant amounts of money from homeowners for house extensions and projects which were never done. 

“Members of the public need protection from this kind of activity which is why Fairweather will no longer be able to act as a company director until October 2032.”

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