‘We paid our builder £44k then he had us arrested’
Rob and Lucy Davies had high hopes when they hired builder Steve Figg to build their dream home extension.
However, the situation turned into a nightmare when their house was demolished and the couple was thrown into police cells.
Rather than handing over the project, Figg, who already had £44,000, reported them to the police, claiming they were harassing him and telling officers he wanted to kill them.
The 35-year-old builder was fed up with the Langdon Hills couple in Basildon, Essex, asking when he would be back to finish the job.
They’re not the only ones Figg has disappointed. Others told the BBC he was putting not only their homes but also their relationships at risk of collapse.
One woman even described how Figg came to her home with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer and destroyed her garden office, one after the other, upon payment.
At Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court Figg was ordered to pay £85,000 compensation to Rob and Lucy Davies. [Rob Davies]
Figg, of Milton Road, Stanford-le-Hope, Essex Davies ordered to pay £85,000 in compensationHe admitted to 22 violations of building regulations in his homes.
The couple and others who hired Figg shared stories of the devastation he left in his wake.
‘A total nightmare’
Davies family home in danger of collapse due to Steve Figg’s shoddy work [Rob Davies]
“The only way I can describe what our house looked like was that it looked like a bomb site,” explains Rob Davies, 37.
“There was a huge hole in the garden where the kitchen was supposed to go and the back of the house was in danger of collapsing.”
That was the situation in October 2024, a year after Figg began work on the single-storey extension, which is scheduled to take 12 weeks.
Due to large gaps in the exposed, unsupported wall, mice were free to run and nest in the house, making it impossible to heat the property.
“The only way to get through this was to go every day and say ‘Everything will be okay,'” Davies told the BBC. your voice.
“It was an absolute nightmare. There were times when we thought we wouldn’t make it together. It tested our marriage greatly.”
[Rob Davies]
The couple spent a total of £75,000 on the disastrous project; Of this, £28,000 was for repairs to the mess Figg had left and £3,000 was for legal fees.
They were dealt a final blow when, after trying to contact Figg for two months, Figg told police he was being harassed by the couple and wanted to kill them.
The couple were arrested at their workplace and held in cells at Grays police station for 22 hours before being released after officers apologized.
But the full picture emerged when Basildon Council’s building control team began gathering evidence against Figg, who ran Figg Construction Ltd.
Davies says: “Hate is a strong word but I really can’t think of any other kind of person who would do this. He is the lowest of the low.”
“He acts like someone who can do all these things, but when you look at the surface you see that he is incompetent.”
‘Incredible and scary’
Steve and Gemma Hemmings were ‘horrified’ when Figg arrived at their home with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer [Gemma Hemmings]
While Figg was only convicted for his actions at Davies’ home, the court heard he was being investigated for possible crimes against four other unnamed victims.
Gemma Hemmings says she was confronted by Figg, who was armed with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer, shortly after giving birth.
She could only watch as he destroyed his garden office over a dispute over payment.
Hemmings, 40, and husband Steve, 38, paid Figg almost £100,000 to build offices and extend their home in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in 2021.
But they angered him by not making the final payment, instructing him to first complete his shoddy work to a higher standard.
“We watched him destroy everything with a big smile on his face. It was terrible,” Hemmings recalls.
“He was someone who was in our home and around our children. We would add him to our family.”
Upon payment, Figg went to Hemmings’ garden office with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer in rapid succession [Gemma Hemmings]
While the couple had to stay away from home for 10 weeks with their newborn baby, Figg continued to make excuses for the job taking longer than nine months.
“Looking back, I don’t know how Steve and I are still together,” Hemmings continues. “It destroyed our marriage.
“The pressure it put on our family life was incredible; unbelievable and terrifying.”
Despite their experience, Hemmings thinks they were the luckier of Figg’s victims. Unlike the others, their home had windows, walls and roof remaining.
Hemmings said Figg made the family so paranoid that they installed cameras in their home. [Gemma Hemmings]
But they remember Figg as a scary man who made them so paranoid that he installed cameras in their home.
“If you had asked me four years ago, I probably would have said I wanted him dead,” Hemmings says.
“But I don’t think about that guy anymore. He’s getting everything he deserves for what he did to us and the people after us.”
“I think he’s one of the worst people I’ve ever met.”
‘The worst building he has ever seen’
Nick Marns was told that his study at Figg’s house was the worst a researcher had ever seen [Nick Marns]
Nick Marns, an insurance broker from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, doesn’t consider himself lucky.
He paid Figg a “significant” sum of money to double the size of his two-bed property in 2017, but instead the property was gutted and left in shambles.
As a result, Marns became homeless and needed counselling.
“When construction control came, he said it was the worst building he had ever seen in his career,” says the 41-year-old actor.
Pictures of the mess containing 10 tons of rubble say it all. He was only able to return to Marns’ home in June 2018.
Marns says he feels “hate” towards Figg for what he did [Nick Marns]
He says the stressful process put pressure on his relationship and caused him to have a mental breakdown.
Marns describes Figg as a “manipulative” man who lies at every opportunity to disguise himself.
“He’s a very sneaky guy because every time you meet him he gets sick or says a family member has died,” says Marns, who now lives in Dubai.
“I’m still sickened by what he did to our lives. He destroyed our lives.”
Do you have any story suggestions for Essex? Contact us below.
Follow Essex news BBC Voices, Facebook, instagram And X.
