Robert Firth
A COWBOY builder has fled to the UK with thousands of euros an expat paid him to fit air conditioning in her new dream home.
Expat Nicola Brookes claims she is owed €1,709 after Air Care Gibraltar director Andrew Maddison returned to the UK.
The Casares resident has called in police to probe the case, after the former Duquesa-based builder suddenly upped sticks.
She claims she has also had to fork out €700 on legal fees and changing the locks.
However, this was firmly denied by a so-called ‘accounts manager’ of the firm Phillip Charlton, who threatened her to stop spreading ‘malicious rumours’.
The problems came after she paid half of the quote upfront in August.
“He just failed to return to do the job,” she told the Olive Press. “He is a total nightmare”.
Since leaving Spain in September, the 55-year-old plumber has set up two new businesses in Hampshire, the Olive Press has discovered.
When we contacted him this week, he insisted the claims were ‘entirely false’ and that he was suing Brookes for libel.
He added he no longer owned Air Care Gibraltar and insisted the company’s new boss had offered to complete her installation, which she had turned down.
“She refused and then started slandering me everywhere when in fact it had nothing to do with me once the company was sold,” he said.
Despite his claims, he still appears to be the director of the La Linea-based business.
