Solar Panel Fraud: Trader Sentenced Over £180,000

Five things from the past week for anyone with a roof to look after. A Cornwall solar trader was sentenced for a £180,000 fraud against customers, a folding ladder sold online has been recalled because it can collapse, a scaffolding firm was fined over a trainee’s death, official figures show building costs still rising, and a reclamation yard found a 200-year-old roof tile with a message on the back.

Solar trader sentenced over £180,000 fraud in Cornwall

Jonathan Alan Vidler, 61, of Camelford, was sentenced at Truro Crown Court on 6 November to three years in prison, suspended for three years because of his poor health. He had pleaded guilty to four counts of fraudulent trading under the Companies Act and one offence under the Fraud Act 2006. He traded through several companies, including Net Zero (Energy) 2050 Limited and Energy Consulting & Contracting Limited. Cornwall Council’s Trading Standards team found that customers had paid large sums for solar panel installations and equipment, then saw the work delayed, left unfinished or never started. The evidence covered 23 customers, a charitable trust and four contractors he had hired, with losses of £180,000 in total.

The pattern is the one to guard against: a large payment up front to a trader who seems to know the industry, then silence. Keep any deposit small, pay the balance only when the system is installed and signed off, check the installer is certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) and ask for the MCS certificate at handover. If the job costs more than £100, paying at least part of it by credit card gives you a claim against the card provider under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act if the firm fails to deliver. Our solar panels and your roof guide covers what to check before panels go on, and roofing scams lists the warning signs. Source: CornishStuff.

Recall: a multi-purpose ladder that can collapse

On 12 November the Office for Product Safety and Standards published a recall of The Workplace Depot Multi-Purpose Combi Ladder, an aluminium ladder with eight configurations and a stated maximum load of 150kg, sold between 6 January and 30 October 2026 (batch PO-08816). Testing found it does not have enough structural strength and may collapse, its locking mechanisms do not work properly, and its base is narrower than the minimum allowed. The risk is rated high.

If you own one, stop using it and call The Workplace Depot on 0800 0126 777 for a full refund. Folding ladders like this are often bought for jobs such as clearing a gutter or checking a downpipe. Most gutter work on a two-storey house is safer left to someone with the right access equipment; our gutter cleaning cost guide shows what that usually costs. Sources: GOV.UK recall notice and The Workplace Depot’s recall page.

Scaffolding firm fined after a trainee died in a 5 metre fall

Ask Scaffolding Ltd, of Pickering in North Yorkshire, was fined £16,000 and ordered to pay £8,000 in costs and a £2,000 victim surcharge at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on 4 November. On 5 July 2023 trainee scaffolder Michael Swales was putting up scaffolding at the front of a two-storey house on a housing development near Ripon when he stood on an unsecured board and fell five metres. He died at the scene. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that no safe zones had been set up, neither he nor his colleague was wearing a harness, guardrails were missing where they should have been, and witnesses said the firm’s workers regularly ignored industry guidance.

When a roofer quotes for scaffolding, it is fair to ask who is putting it up, whether they are a scaffolding firm in their own right, and whether you will get a handover certificate before anyone climbs it. A scaffold with missing guardrails is a danger to the roofers and to anyone below. Our roof scaffolding cost guide explains what the price should include. Source: HSE.

Building prices still rising, 3.2% in a year

The Office for National Statistics said on 12 November that construction output prices rose 3.2% in the 12 months to September 2026. Overall output fell 0.7% in July to September, mostly because private housebuilding dropped 4.7%, but repair and maintenance work, which includes most roof jobs on existing homes, grew 0.5%. Separately, the Construction Products Association’s survey of manufacturers for July to September, published on 9 November, found that every manufacturer reported higher fuel and raw material costs than a year earlier, which it put down to the high oil prices between February and May.

For a homeowner, steady demand for repair work and rising material costs both point the same way: prices are not falling. If you have a quote, check how long it holds and whether materials are fixed. Our new roof cost guide sets out current price ranges. Sources: ONS and Roofing Today.

A 200-year-old roof tile with a sacking note on the back

Staff at Cawarden Reclaim, a reclamation yard in Rugeley, Staffordshire, found a handmade Staffordshire Blue clay tile with a message written into the clay before it was fired: “I do hereby discharge you, John Lewis, from my employment, Thomas Austin.” Their research found a Thomas Austin, brick and tile maker, working at Tunstall in Stoke-on-Trent in 1820. The tile is thought to have come from an old farmhouse whose site is now a housing development.

It is a reminder that reclamation yards hold old clay tiles in real numbers, and that is where you go when a roof needs a few matching tiles that are no longer made. Our guide to matching discontinued roof tiles explains how to find them. Source: Roofing Today.