a case to be solved. very important.

Do you have any written evidence of their working at your and neighbouring gardens? Any proof to show they were there or that they took £200 off you? Was it cash in hand, direct debit or cheque?

I don't think it is a good idea to try and scam the scammers especially if they are good at what they do, it is unlikely they would come back.

It could be that you have just lost the money and will have to learn your lesson. It seems dubious that a small company could deal in so many areas of expertise, I would watch out for that in the future.

If you do want to make a court claim, it could cost about £80 and if you lose that's £280 you have lost.

Hope that helps.

my neighbours have the receipts but we didn't and we simply gave them £200 cash in hand.

thanks btw, what sneaky method can we use to try and get a receipt off them because they are coming tomorrow and i need to get things straight (my parents are chinese and don't know english so they were easy targets).

you see, i want this to stop this happening to people because he has more or less scammed a lot of people in my street before...

I don't see what the scam is. From what you have said the only complaint is that they have done poor quality building work. There are plenty of bad builders about and it doesn't mean that they are criminals. There is nothing to report to the police (from what you have told us).

I suppose the poor quality building work may be worth reporting to Trading Standards but even they are unlikely to be interested unless the builders actually lied to you. If the builders simply did work below the agreed standard, it is a civil matter and your only recourse, if they refuise a negotiated solution, is to sue them for recovery of money you have paid for the work.

But beware: If they have done the work (even though badly) and you haven't paid them the full contract price, then you are also in breach of contract and they may equally sue you. In that case you will be liable for a the contract price less a counterclaim ('set-off') for the cost of remedying the work that they did incorrectly. You will probably end up bearing the legal costs if you underpaid by more than the price of remedial work.

There's no legal requirement to give a receipt. Whether you get a receipt for money paid is a matter of your personal practice. If you want a receipt, you shouldn't give cash without one. Of course if they take £200 in cash from you and run off without doing any work that's theft. But from what I understand this isn't what they did.

Thanks for the advice .

I managed to persuade them to stop the job and give back the money but they only gave us back £100 because they bought materials with some of the money.

Well, i guess they were frightened because the fact that they ran off with my neighbours money without completing their work was an offence. However, my parents don't want to get really involved so we want to cut our losses.

Anyway, thanks everyone. This is a valuable lesson for the future!

If we go on Professor Gardner's purely technical view (which I'm sure is correct) that it's only a civil claim, then it's a small claims matter, which means if it did go to court you couldn't reclaim your costs. Therefore, there would be absolutely no point in doing anything anyway. It's annoying if you get ripped off, but unless it's for a significant amount of money- or a lawyer is willing to do it pro bono, there's really nothing you can do.