UK Construction and Law

A builder who took deposits while his company was insolvent has had his 28 month sentence suspended on appeal

By Staff Writer  |  27 August 2026

Michael Haslam took around 210,000 pounds from seven householders through a company he knew could not pay its debts, and was jailed for two years and four months at Derby Crown Court on 1 July. The Court of Appeal suspended that sentence on 26 August. The 15 year directors' disqualification stands.

Haslam, who is 74 and lives at Oaklands Avenue, Littleover, pleaded guilty in May 2026 to a single count of fraudulent trading. He ran M and J Builders Limited, company number 09943727, taking money up front from householders for extensions, kitchens and refurbishments between November 2020 and 2022, at a point when the company was insolvent. On 26 August the Court of Appeal suspended the custodial term for two years, with a rehabilitation order and 160 hours of unpaid work.

Seven jobs, and what was left behind

The pattern was consistent. A quote, a deposit or staged payments in advance, a start on site, then a slowdown and an abandonment. The first customer, in Darley Abbey, paid more than 150,000 pounds in the first half of 2021 for a property she intended to renovate for her retirement, and received about 40,000 pounds of work. A promised site manager never appeared. Work stopped in July 2021 and she spent a further 18,000 pounds clearing the site before another builder could start.

A second customer paid 47,760 pounds for a single storey extension and a garage refurbishment. Work stopped in June 2022, the house was left without running water for seven months, and when the builder returned the following month he asked for a further 6,600 pounds to restart. She paid it and no work followed. The remedial contractor found steelwork that could not carry the load above it. Another customer paid 12,080 pounds in advance for a kitchen renovation and found that windows and doors invoiced for had never been ordered. In Mickleover, on a job quoted at 18,300 pounds, council inspectors warned that the work might have to come down entirely.

A further customer, a mental health nurse, agreed a price of 32,100 pounds for a single storey extension and signed days after the company had been professionally advised that it was insolvent. She paid 35,880 pounds in total after being told that weekly payments would speed the work up.

Where the money went

The investigation followed the cash rather than the workmanship, which is what makes fraudulent trading provable. Almost 400,000 pounds left the company account under the single reference MG Haslam Expenses. A 75,000 pound loan received in October 2020 was gone within weeks. A further 63,055 pounds was identified in cash withdrawals from the company account. A personal account, which is where some customers were told to pay, showed 164,229 pounds in cash withdrawals, nearly 19,000 pounds spent on Amazon and eBay, and 77,376 pounds paid to the couple's daughter. Large withdrawals were made from both accounts within minutes of each other at the same cash machine.

Fraudulent trading is one of the most serious offences the Insolvency Service investigates, and we will continue to pursue predatory fraudsters like Michael Haslam who exploit innocent people.

Mark Stephens, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service

Two things in this case travel beyond it. The first is that the offence turns on the state of the company when the money was taken, not on the quality of the building work. The customer who signed days after insolvency advice had been given was contracting with a company that already knew its own position, and none of the seven would have engaged it had they known. The second is the disqualification, imposed for the maximum 15 years and untouched by the appeal, which is the part that actually keeps a person out of the trade.

For anyone advising a householder on a domestic building contract, the practical lesson is unchanged and unglamorous. Money paid up front for materials that have not been ordered is unsecured, and by the time the windows are found not to exist the company has usually spent it. Staged payments tied to work actually in place, rather than to a weekly schedule, are the only real protection outside an insolvency.