Claim Sidcup builders Object Limited left sales reps unpaid

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. 

Sales reps for a building firm were left unpaid for their final weeks’ worth of work after all its phone numbers and email addresses suddenly stopped working, one ex-worker has alleged.

Patrick – a former sales rep for Sidcup-based Object Limited, which traded as Object Builders – spoke to Newsquest on the condition that his real name was not used.

He said he was speaking out because he felt sorry for customers of the firm, which has since been reported to police for alleged fraud by at least 19 people.

Those 19 each told Newsquest they paid deposits for building works that were never carried out, then the company shut down its website, email addresses and phone numbers and never contacted them again.

They included Stratford preschool boss Katarzyna Marcinowska, who handed over almost £9,000, and Bexleyheath driving instructor Laxman Neupane, who paid almost £25,000.

“It’s not right, what’s happened to all these people,” said Patrick, who claimed he and some fellow sales reps were never paid for their last month or so of work.

“When we chased it up, they just said, ‘Give us a week, give us a week, give us a week’,” he claimed.

But then, he alleged, the company “disappeared”. All its phone numbers and email addresses went dead.

“I’ve got about 15 different numbers,” said Patrick. “None of them work.”

He estimates that he worked for Object Limited for three or four months, measuring up properties and filling out paperwork.

He got the job after responding to an online advert and being interviewed in a Starbucks in Coventry. He was then asked to attend a training day at a hotel in Birmingham.

“They did proper, professional training at the Premier Inn, in a conference room,” he said. “We went through details of how the paperwork should be done – just normal training… They showed us slideshows of other works they had completed with banners all over the buildings, which gave us quite a bit of confidence.

“They said the company had been set up for four years. They had an incorporation certificate from 2020 or something.”

Patrick was self-employed and worked remotely, never attending an office and only meeting company bosses on two occasions, including the Birmingham hotel training day.

To his knowledge, he never met registered company director and owner Robin Rudland, who has claimed in a filmed confrontation that he was not really in charge but allowed his name to be used on forms.

Registered company owner and director Robin Rudland told customer Ray Mo, in a filmed exchange, that he was not really in charge and had just allowed his name to be used on company paperwork (Image: Ray Mo)

He recalls the training being led by a man called Tony, who arrived in a Mercedes, and a man called Steve, who arrived in a BMW with a cracked windscreen.

“Tony looked like Homer Simpson,” said Patrick. “He was a friendly-looking chap. But I never met Robin. I never even heard of him.”

He met Steve once more, around a month later, to hand over some paperwork, and observed that his windscreen was still cracked.

Patrick estimated that he was one of 10 or 15 reps travelling the country to sign up new customers. He personally visited between 10 and 20 properties per week, he said, and was paid per job, rather than salaried.

At the training, he was told he was part of the Birmingham team, but there were two more teams – one up north, and one down south.

After a while, said Patrick, he and his colleagues began questioning how the building firm could possibly keep up with the volume of customers that the reps were signing up.

The question has plagued him even more since the company “disappeared”, leaving behind a trail of unpaid staff and undelivered building projects.

Patrick has been unemployed ever since Object Limited disappeared and said he had given up any hope of ever being paid.

“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’s acting director Claire Webb.

“These are currently being assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) at the City of London Police.”

Two complainants have since received letters saying NFIB has referred their cases to the Metropolitan Police for further investigation.

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

Robin Rudland did not respond to requests for comment.