This story is part of a series to be published over the coming week following an investigation into Object Builders.

Over the course of more than a month we spoke to former customers and contractors who claim to have been left out of pocket - some to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds.

To read all the stories in this series click here. 

The director of a building firm reported to police for alleged fraud denied active involvement in the company, in video footage supplied to Newsquest by an angry customer.

Robin Rudland claims on film that he is not really in charge of Object Limited, but allowed his name to be used on official forms for Companies House.

“It’s nothing to do with me,” he insists in the footage. “I’m just down as a name.”

Mr Rudland made the statements when he was confronted on camera by Ray Mo, a bank worker from Welling.

Ray paid almost £6,000 as a deposit on a kitchen renovation, only for Object Limited – which traded as Object Builders – to allegedly cut off all communication and disappear.

Newsquest has also reported this week on the case of Bexleyheath driving instructor Laxman Neupane, who handed over almost £25,000, and Stratford preschool boss Katarzyna Marcinowska, who paid almost £9,000.

Ray travelled to Sidcup after realising he was not the only customer who had handed over money, only for the company to allegedly shut down its website and cut off all its phone numbers.

He found the address in Companies House paperwork filed by Mr Rudland in May 2023, when he became Object Limited’s new director and owner.

Newsquest has edited his footage to remove any shots where the property Ray confronted Mr Rudland outside could be visible.

Object Limited had been incorporated in 2020 by a Polish national who, according to Companies House records, is a current or former director of almost 1,700 companies.

However, it was “dormant” until Mr Rudland took over and changed its address to a property in Sidcup, linked to his family.

By the time Newsquest attended in October, the property was behind a locked gate with no doorbell. All we could do was hand post a letter into an external mailbox attached to the gate. Nobody responded.

We also left a voicemail on the answerphone of a publicly listed phone number for the Sidcup address, but received no response.

Ray had visited and confronted Mr Rudland months earlier.

Mr Rudland had since changed Object Limited’s address to an office block in Oxted, so we sent a copy of our letter there too, via Royal Mail’s “signed for” delivery service – but it was never delivered.

Another company in the block told us Object Limited had been there, but then suddenly left. Within weeks, a string of disgruntled customers started arriving at the block looking for them.

“They were here,” said the source. “They were in the office for about two months or so – up to three or four people at a time… We shared the same kitchen with them.

“But then they just upped sticks… Then, probably a month after they left, that was when we started getting all these people at our front door asking if we had seen Object Builders – but we hadn’t.

“We had, I would say, six, seven, eight different parties all turn up to the office within the space of about two weeks. One guy had travelled all the way down from Nottingham.

“It wasn’t a nice experience but we are human beings and we tried to help.”

In his filmed encounter with Ray, Mr Rudland refused to say who he alleged was really in charge of Object Limited, if not himself.

He refused to provide his own phone number or that of anybody else at the company, instead telling Ray repeatedly that if he had a problem he should call the police.

“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,” he said. “Just go to the police.”

Ray was one of 19 people since confirmed by City of London Police to have done exactly that.

All 19 cases were referred to the force’s Action Fraud squad. At least two have since been assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and referred to the Metropolitan Police for investigation.

The Metropolitan Police stated: “An investigation is underway, relating to potential fraud. At this stage, no arrests have been made."