A woman says she is more than £3,000 out of pocket after paying a Manea builder for work on her home that he failed to complete.

“I cannot afford to lose this sort of money,” said Geraldine Causton.

She says she regrets the day she called Anthony ‘Ant’ Judge down to Southend in August to quote for the work.

Ms Causton said she wanted to him to repair guttering, install a new patio, a concrete border at the front and change bathroom lights.

“The slabs for the patio were £2,400; he asked for this before he came, so I transferred it to him on August 4,” she said.

“He came to my house in Southend on August 9 and on the 10th, asked for a further £2,000 for the rest of the materials. I assumed as he was here, he would work.”

Ms Causton received bags of slate, sand and cement but said Mr Judge never arrived to work, as well as not receiving her patio slabs on time.

The 66-year-old says she was told by Mr Judge when he arrived at her house on August 13 that his phone and wallet and been stolen.

He said he had been unable to contact the company that was delivering the slabs.

“He said ‘order a skip for Monday, I will be back with another guy and finish it off’,” said Ms Causton.

“He never came back and the skip was picked up empty.”

Despite completing “one and a half days” of work totalling £1,128.84 in material and labour costs, Ms Causton says she is owed £3,271.16 from Mr Judge’s company, AMF Property Maintenance.

“His whole attitude changed after he had the money, and he was always moaning he was out of pocket,” she said.

“I put feedback on his Facebook page and he rang up, shouting at me.

“Then he put the phone down.”

Ms Causton now wants to know if others have experienced similar issues with AMF Property Maintenance.

She has contacted her bank and plans to contact police.

Ms Causton added: “I wanted to get my bungalow as maintenance free as possible as I am unable to do a lot of things.

“I feel used, scammed and treated like he was taking the mick but, in the end, I guess he did.”

We have tried on several occasions to get in touch with AMF Property Maintenance but so far without success.