A rogue builder took £25,000 from his customers before forging a cancer diagnosis and leaving them without shelter.
Roofer Joseph Gardener, 35, from Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, left one homeowner without a roof and another with tiles falling onto their driveway.
The customer was forced to climb up onto his property in the middle of the night during a storm - after the tarpaulin came off.
In another case, a homeowner was left with a gaping hole in his bedroom ceiling.
The fraudster even forged a cancer diagnosis to avoid completing the work – leading one man to a breakdown, after working 12 hour shifts for three months to afford the renovation project.
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The cowboy builder pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud between August 2019 and December 2020 in Teesside Crown Court on Monday.
He admitted taking £25,000 in payments from nine separate customers, despite failing to carry out the scheduled work.
A judge handed Gardener a nine month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months and an order with a 30 day rehabilitation requirement.
The builder was also instructed to pay off £12,350 - half of what he had been paid - to his customers through monthly payments of £750.
The court heard that one victim was driven to a breakdown after Gardener, from J&J Roofing, failed to finish work on his house.
In a statement, the homeowner told the court that he had "worked solidly for three months, 12 hours a day with no socialising to earn the money for a new roof and loft conversion".
But Gardener failed to turn up on January 17, 2020, to start the work, despite the fact the money for materials had been paid.
The homeowner bumped into the builder in the pub, and Gardener promised he'd start on January 20. He then requested further payment.
But several issues cropped up with the roof not long after - including the discovery of a hole in his bedroom ceiling.
Eventually another builder came in to fix the issue - and branded the work "the worst job he'd ever seen''.
The homeowner had to move back to his parents and get another builder into re-do his roof.
Defending the roofer, Chris Baker told the court that Gardener's life had been ''in catastrophe for a number of years''.
He had inherited the business from his dad, but hadn't coped well when his father died in 2018.
Judge Anthony Hawks told Gardener he was not going to send him to prison: "None of your customers are people of significant means. You, through a mixture of fraud, dishonesty and incompetence woefully abused your customer's trust.
"You can leave the dock. I hope we never see you again."
