A daughter has told how her dad lost his entire retirement savings to scammers while her step-mum was fighting for her life in intensive care.
Hayley Jane, 23, said her dad Christopher, 64, who wishes to remain anonymous, had recently been told his 63-year-old wife Pat might not make it through the night when two cowboy builders came knocking at his door.
The 64-year-old, from Chesham, Buckinghamshire, agreed to pay the men to replace his roof tiles after they told him they saw some were missing while working on a nearby home.
However the job soon expanded as the tradesmen claimed to find new problems, with the bill spiralling out of control.
Christopher eventually handed over his and his wife's £20,000 retirement savings to their boss, who demanded a further £25,000 to finish the job.
Hayley told Mirror Online: "One of the most sickening things about this is when these people started the work it came up in conversation that my step-mum was in hospital.
"They all knew she was in intensive care and an NHS worker. She would have saved their lives if they needed it."
Hayley said her step-mum Pat was rushed to hospital in an ambulance on April 4, leaving Christopher standing at the door in tears, unsure of whether he would see his wife again.
The Watford General Hospital nurse's condition rapidly deteriorated and she was put on a ventilator within days of being admitted.
Around three weeks into her time at hospital she took a turn for the worse.
Hayley said: "They had her on the highest settings on the ventilator. They called my dad and said she might not make it through the night."
Luckily she pulled through, although her condition was still precarious when the two roofers knocked on Christopher's door on May 11.
They told him they had spotted a few tiles missing on his roof and offered to replace them.
Hayley, from Saint Albans, Hertfordshire, said: "He had so much on his mind he thought 'why not?'"
The workers' boss called him up and offered to complete the job for £30, with the builders returning hours later to replace the tiles.
However, soon after starting the job they told Christopher his chimney was wobbly and warned him it could fall down and land on a neighbour's car.
They said it would either need to be repaired or capped, with the dad asking for it to be capped.
Christopher, who works in a warehouse, had to pay scaffolders in cash after they arrived at his home, with the roofers then handing him another quote for a supposed hole in his roofing felt.
They later told him they had found more holes, resulting in further scaffolding going up around his home.
In total he paid an eye-watering £20,300 for the work - £1,600 of which was in cash, while the rest was via bank transfer.
Hayley said: "No-one knew about it but him. He was left with nothing on his roof. It had been stripped.
"He received a phone call from the boss. He said we have stripped your roof... it's going to cost a further £25,000 for us to complete the job.
"Dad said you have taken all my savings and I'm not prepared to take out a loan. The boss said just get as much money as you can and let me know how much you can get your hands on."
Christopher had repeatedly asked the workers for the name of their boss and for invoices for the work, however he was not provided with anything.
After being hit with the £25,000 bill, the dad revealed what had happened to his daughters, who then asked for a different roofer and a surveyor to take a look at the job.
The roofer said the entire project should have cost around £7,500, while the surveyor told them he thought their dad had scammed.
Hayley said: "He said he didn't believe the work needed doing from what he could see.
"He said we have definitely been scammed as we have paid £20,000 and the chimney hasn't even been capped like promised - and they have stripped the roof."
The spa therapist said her dad, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer three months ago, sounded more vulnerable and fragile then ever before after the scam.
Her torment was made even worse by not being able to give him a hug because he is self-isolating with his elderly mother, who lives with him.
Fortunately, Pat now appears to be getting better and has woken up, although she is still on a ventilator in Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
The family are trying to recover the bank transfer payments, although they have not yet been able to get the money back.
The workers' boss could not be reached after the scam, with his phone saying he was 'unavailable', according to Hayley.
Thames Valley Police and Buckinghamshire Council and Surrey County Council's Trading Standards are investigating the incident.
It comes after Buckinghamshire Council revealed similar scams in the county in the past fortnight.
Scammers took £50,000 from another resident for supposedly fixing a loose chimney and other roof work.
Another involved two individuals pretending to be exempt from lockdown restrictions, although the resident saw through their scam and sent them away.
Click here to donate to the GoFundMe page Hayley set up to build her dad and step-mum's retirement fund back up.
