A BUILDER from Paulton has been found guilty of defrauding his customers of more than £1.25-million following a joint investigation by Avon and Somerset Police and Bristol City Council’s Trading Standards team.

More than 100 complaints were made against Mark Killick resulting in him being charged with 46 offences of fraud by false representation between 2019 and 2021, worth the equivalent of a ‘lottery win’, his trial was told.

The jury found him guilty of 37 counts and he was remanded in custody to be sentenced on Monday, December 22. Further work will be carried out to establish if any money can be regained via the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The prosecution said Killick, dishonestly took payments from customers, intending all along he would keep their money, rather than use it for the promised work.

Killick, who was known to his customers as Marc Cole, used some of the funds he said was to process their building projects for personal expenditure, including gambling and travel.

The jury were told during the 14-week trial at Bristol Crown Court that Killick would request customers pay large sums of money upfront to enable him to pay for orders or materials.

He stressed to some customers they needed to pay their bills ‘urgently’, but the court was told he was running a ‘ponzi scheme’ and effectively using that money to fund the work for customers who had paid him months before for jobs he had not completed. He was also accused of failing to pay suppliers and contractors too, increasing the company’s liabilities.

Killick’s company, TD Cole Ltd, began work for some of his customers, who would then see no progress for weeks or months at a time, even after having already spent tens of thousands of pounds.

The prosecution said the victims were in a weak bargaining position, because their house had been turned into a building site and they were left waiting for Killick to return calls and messages to explain when work would re-start. Therefore, if he asked for more money, they felt compelled to pay to avoid writing off their financial losses.

Other customers paid Killick and TD Cole for work that was never even started.

The jury retired to consider their verdicts over several weeks and found Killick guilty of 37 counts of fraud by false representation (33 unanimously and four by majority verdict) and not guilty on one count. The remaining eight counts he was not convicted of.

It is estimated the value of the work not done by Killick across his 37 victims was approximately £1,270,000. They spent a total of £1,473,191 with the company.

Killick’s victims were unaware of the financial issues TD Cole Ltd was facing or his criminal record.

Between 2008 and 2014 Killick was investigated and prosecuted twice for fraud offences relating to failing to complete building work after asking for deposits. In 2008 he was convicted under the name Killick and in 2014 under the name Mark Jenkins, which was his grandfather’s name.