A COWBOY builder left a family’s home in ruin after absconding midcontract, leaving damage totalling tens of thousands of pounds in his wake.

At Easter, when Alison and Richard Hendle, 47 and 44, enlisted a “smooth talking” local builder to construct their extension, they were a step closer to their dream home.

But now, the couple are “horrified” while the roof of their Burgess Avenue home in Stanford-le-Hope is on the verge of collapse.

While trading standards is set to investigate the alleged con-artist, self-employed Mrs Hendle took to social media to reach out to tradesmen who could help.

She received replies from 30 builders, all of whom vowed to work on her home for free, after her post was shared more than 4,000 times.

She said: “When something as dreadful as this happens you lose your faith in humanity who does this to someone?

“But after the responses on Facebook I felt completely overwhelmed and it put my faith back in people.

“This was meant to be our dream home but it has turned out to be a nightmare.”

Mrs Hendle, a mother of two girls, 14 and 22, explained the plan was to build a set of upstairs rooms on top of an existing ground floor extension, with a downstairs refitting.

The couple enlisted the tradesman after word of mouth recommendation and viewing his previous work.

Mrs Hendle continued: “Now the new roof is sagging.

“The cowboy builder even brought a fake building in spector around, “Now we are waiting for a real building inspector before the work starts.”