Falkirk conman jailed for three years after taking £100k for garden sheds never delivered

Alistair Baxter, 36, took thousands of pounds for the work from almost 70 people, some of them pensioners in their seventies.

He took orders and banked large deposits from customers looking for sheds and summerhouses in Stirlingshire, Dunbartonshire, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

But he then failed to carry out any of the work and his victims lost their money.

Baxter, described as a self-employed joiner and owner of Falkirk-based AB Garden Building Ltd, was sentenced at Stirling Sheriff Court today after pleading guilty to fraud.

Helen Nisbet, Procurator Fiscal for Tayside, Central and Fife, said: “This was a clear case of deception and an egregious breach of trust by Alistair Baxter.

“He took significant sums of cash from people who paid him to do work and then brazenly refused to do the work or return their deposits.

“It was an appalling course of behaviour and he has now been held to account for his crimes.”

Baxter, who advertised his business on social media, carried out his offending between September 2020 and March 2024.

In June 2022, one 68-year-old woman paid £4150 as a deposit after Baxter quoted £5900 to build a summerhouse.

In September of that year, Baxter told her the job would not be carried out until the full £1800 balance had been paid.

The money was transferred but the work was never carried out and no refund was issued.

In September 2023, a 74-year-old woman paid a £1250 deposit for a summerhouse but the work was never started.

She was later falsely told by Baxter that the money had been refunded into her bank account.

Some victims received deliveries of materials, but no construction work ever took place.

Baxter pleaded guilty in April and today he was sentenced to three years and four months in prison by Sheriff Derek Hamilton.

The sheriff told Baxter: “I accept you paid back some money to some customers, but it was very little in the scheme of things.

“Significantly, it wasn't a scheme designed to dupe for example large business or government. Many private individuals ... lost significant sums. No doubt all of your victims felt financial pain from your dishonesty.

“There's no appropriate alternative to custody in this case – the public is fed up with bogus workmen.”