Over the course of more than a month, former customers and contractors have come forward claiming to have been left out of pocket – some to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds – by Object Limited, a building company based in Sidcup. To read all the stories in this series, click here.

Furious Customer Confronts Owner

One customer, Ray Mo, from Welling, confronted company owner Robin Rudland, demanding answers about why Object Limited had taken customers’ money and then cut off all communication. But Mr. Rudland refused to answer Ray’s questions, repeatedly telling him to contact the police if he wasn’t happy.

Ray did contact the police, and so did at least 18 other people, City of London Police has since confirmed. At least two cases have been assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and handed to the Metropolitan Police for further investigation. Mr. Rudland has not been heard from since and did not respond to Newsquest’s approaches for comment.

Ray’s Nightmare Experience

Ray, his wife, and their three children have lived in their Welling home for over a decade and wanted to reconfigure their kitchen and utility room to create a kitchen-diner. They found Object Limited, which traded as Object Builders, through the website RatedPeople, which helps connect potential customers with building firms.

“They sent an individual round to scope the job and give a quote at the beginning of this year,” Ray said of Object Limited. The firm quoted £16,482.

“The following day I agreed to make the deposit payment,” he said. According to an Object Limited receipt shown to Newsquest, Ray paid £5,494. As soon as he had parted with his money, Ray alleged, “There was a bit of a turn from, ‘Anything is possible, we can work with you on design, planning and everything’, to all of a sudden there were delays and excuses and ‘No one can come round at the moment, the date will have to be pushed back’.”

“The work was due to start at the beginning of April, but they called in March to say they couldn’t do that anymore, and then it just kept getting pushed back further and further and further. They were trying to delay things with every excuse under the sun, so I started trying to get a refund and kept getting pushed around to different individuals. It felt like a delaying tactic.

“It got to June or July and I couldn’t get hold of them anymore.”

Finding Other Victims

Ray started doing internet searches on the firm and found a Facebook group created by other seemingly abandoned customers.

“I found this group of individuals all saying they hadn’t been able to contact Object Builders and that was when the penny dropped,” he recalled.

Ray visited Object Limited’s former registered address in Sidcup and found company owner and director Robin Rudland. Mr Rudland said he was ‘just a name’ on registration forms and told Ray to ring the police (Image: Ray Mo)

Ray looked up the firm on Companies House and found Mr. Rudland had initially registered the firm at an address in Sidcup. He went there and confronted Mr. Rudland on video, but the businessman insisted: “It’s nothing to do with me… I’m just down as a name.” However, he refused to tell Ray who he believed was actually in charge or provide either his own phone number or that of anyone else in charge at Object Limited.

“If you think I’ve done something wrong, call the police,” Mr. Rudland said. “I’m not going to get involved in a debate with you because it’s nothing to do with me, alright?”

He added: “If you feel like you’ve been done or whatever, if you feel that way – which is not the case, but I think it’s, everything’s just got out of hand, like – you’re just gonna have to go to the Old Bill. Just go to the police.”

“It was quite horrendous,” Ray said, adding that it was particularly “hard to swallow” because he has worked in bank compliance in Canary Wharf for 16 years. “I did all the checks on this company,” he said.

Seeking Reimbursement and Justice

Fortunately, Ray contacted his bank, who agreed to repay his losses under the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM). But he has still reported his case to police and said he was speaking publicly to highlight the plight of other customers who haven’t been reimbursed.

“Action Fraud can confirm that it has received 19 reports, which have all been appropriately verified, that were made between 22 July 2024 and 8 August 2024,” said Action Fraud acting director Claire Webb.

RatedPeople said: “We did have this company on our platform. They were active from October 2023 until July 2024. In this time they did not receive any feedback regarding workmanship specifically until their first complaint in July 2024, at which point we reviewed the account and removed them from our platform for not meeting the standards we would expect from a tradesperson on our site.”