Conman joiner who fleeced 70 people in £100K garden shed scam jailed
Victims lost thousands of pounds to the cowboy builder who was jailed for being involved in the fraudulent scheme.
A conman joiner who swindled almost 70 customers out of more than £100,000 in a bogus garden shed and summerhouse scam has been jailed for over three years.
Alistair Baxter, 36, ran the fraud through his Falkirk -based company, AB Garden Building Ltd, taking large deposits from customers across Dunbartonshire, Stirlingshire, Glasgow and Aberdeen between September 2020 and March 2024.
Despite promising to build bespoke garden structures, the cowboy builder failed to deliver on any of the contracts. Some victims, including pensioners in their 70s, lost thousands of pounds and received nothing in return.
He had advertised his business on social media, luring clients with images of garden buildings that were never constructed.
Baxter was sentenced at Stirling Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to fraud and jailed for three years and four months.
Among the victims was a 68-year-old woman who paid a £4,150 deposit in June 2022 after receiving a quote for £5,900. Later in September, she was pressured to pay the remaining balance of £1,800 before any work began.
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She complied—only for no construction to ever take place and no refund was issued.
In another case, a 74-year-old woman handed over a £1,250 deposit for a summerhouse in September 2023. The build never started, and Baxter falsely claimed the money had been refunded.
In some instances, materials were delivered to properties, but no building work ever followed.
Helen Nisbet, Procurator Fiscal for Tayside, Central and Fife, said: 'This was a clear case of deception and an egregious breach of trust by Alistair Baxter.
"He took significant sums of cash from people who paid him to do work and then brazenly refused to do the work or return their deposits. It was an appalling course of behaviour and he has now been held to account for his crimes.'
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