When Rob and Lucy Davies hired builder Steve Figg to build their dream house extension, they had high expectations.
However, it turned into a nightmare, with their home destroyed and the couple even thrown into a police cell.
Instead of delivering the project, Figg, who already had £44,000 in funding, reported them to the police, claiming they were harassing him and telling officers he wanted to kill them.
The 35-year-old builder had grown tired of the couple, from Langdon Hill, Basildon, Essex, asking when he would be back to complete the work.
They weren’t the only ones who let Figg down. Others told the BBC he not only put their homes at risk of collapse but also their relationships.
One woman even described how Feig showed up at her home armed with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer and smashed up her garden office over payment issues.
At Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court, Figg was ordered to pay £85,000 compensation to Rob Davies and Lucy Davies [Rob Davies]
Figg, of Milton Road, Stamford-le-Hope, Essex, has been ordered to pay the Davies £85,000 in compensation after admitting 22 breaches of building regulations at their home.
The couple and others who hired Feig shared stories of the devastation he left behind.
‘A complete nightmare’
Davis home in danger of collapse due to Steve Feige’s shoddy construction [Rob Davies]
Rob Davies, 37, explained: “The only way I can describe it is that our house looked like a bomb site.”
“There was a huge hole in the garden where the kitchen was supposed to be and the back of the house was in danger of collapsing.”
This is the situation in October 2024, a year after Figg began work on the single-storey extension, which was originally scheduled to take 12 weeks.
With large gaps in the exposed, unsupported walls, rats were able to run free and nest in the house, and it had become impossible to keep the house warm.
“The only way we’re going to get through this is to keep going day in and day out and say ‘it’s going to be okay,'” said Davies, who contacted the BBC via Your Voice.
“It was a total nightmare. There were times when we didn’t think we could get through this together. It tested our marriage tremendously.”
[Rob Davies]
The couple spent a total of £75,000 on the disastrous project, with £28,000 spent on repairing the mess left by Figg and £3,000 on legal fees.
The final blow came after two months of trying to contact Figg, who told police he was harassed by the couple and wanted to kill them.
The pair were arrested at their workplace and held in cells at Grays Police Station for 22 hours before being released after police apologized.
It was only when Basildon Council’s building control team began gathering evidence against Figg, who ran Figg Construction Ltd, that the full picture emerged.
“Hate is a strong word, but I really can’t think of another person who would do that. He was the lowest of the low,” Davis said.
“He pretends to be a guy who can do all these things, but when you look beneath the surface, you see there’s nothing he can do.”
“Incredible and terrifying”
Steve and Gemma Hemings were ‘terrified’ when Feige showed up at their home armed with a chainsaw and sledgehammer [Gemma Hemmings]
While Feig was only sentenced for what he did at Davies’ home, the court heard he was being investigated for potential crimes against four other unnamed victims.
Gemma Hemings said she encountered Figg armed with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer shortly after giving birth.
She could only watch as he destroyed her garden office over a payment dispute.
Hemmings, 40, and her husband Steve, 38, have paid Figg nearly £100,000 to build an office and extension to their home in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in 2021.
But they withheld the final payment, demanding that his shoddy work be completed to a higher standard first, which angered him.
“We watched him destroy everything with a huge smile on his face. It was horrific,” Hemmings recalled.
“He’s always been in our home, with our kids. We’re going to let him into our family.”
Feige took a chainsaw and a sledgehammer to the Hemings Garden office over payment issues. [Gemma Hemmings]
The couple had to leave home with their newborn for ten weeks, while Feig continued to make excuses for work that had been delayed for nine months.
Hemings continued: “I look back and I don’t know how Steve and I are still together. It destroyed our marriage.
“The strain it’s put on our family life is unbelievable; it’s just unbelievable and horrific.”
Despite his experience, Hemings considers himself one of the luckier of Figg’s victims. Unlike others, only windows, walls and roofs remain of their houses.
Hemings said Figg made the family so paranoid they installed cameras in their home [Gemma Hemmings]
However, they remember Figg as an intimidating man who made them paranoid to the point of installing cameras in their homes.
“If you had asked me four years ago, I probably would have said I wanted him dead,” Hemings said.
“But now I don’t think about this guy. He got everything he deserved for what he did to us and the people who came after us.”
“I think he’s one of the worst people I’ve ever met.”
“The worst building he had ever seen”
Nick Mans was told Feige’s work on his home was the worst the surveyor had ever seen [Nick Marns]
Insurance agent Nick Marns, from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, doesn’t consider himself lucky.
In 2017 he paid Figg a fortune to double the size of his two-bedroom property, but it was left in shambles.
Manes was homeless and therefore in need of counseling.
“When building control came he said it was the worst building he had ever seen in his career,” the 41-year-old said.
Photos of the chaotic scenes, which included 10 tons of rubble, speak for themselves. It wasn’t until June 2018 that Manes was able to return home.
Mans says he feels ‘hatred’ for what Figg has done [Nick Marns]
He said the stressful process put a strain on his relationships and led to a nervous breakdown.
Mans described Feig as a “manipulative” man who would lie at any opportunity to cover himself.
“He was a cunning man because every time he was confronted, he would be sick or say one of his family members had died,” said Mans, who now lives in Dubai.
“I’m still filled with hatred for what he did to our lives. He destroyed our lives.”
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