A couple say they have been left £100,000 out of pocket after a builder taken on to do a loft conversion left their home flood-damaged and without a roof.

Stacey and Carl Munton employed Dan Caney to carry out the £45,000 project at their house in Gillingham.

The couple paid £17,000 up front for wages and materials and initially the job – estimated to take six to seven weeks – went well.

They had entrusted Chatham-based Mr Caney, who claimed he was affiliated to All Trades Builders and ran his own company under the names of Caney Pro Builders and D.C Builders.

A call to All Trades Builders would later confirm the well-established Sittingbourne business has no connection with Dan Caney employed by the Muntons.

Stacey and Carl were satisfied with a smaller repairs job he had done for them and he seemed “friendly” and “convincing”.

They even invited him and his partner round for drinks and Stacey, who runs a child minder business from their Rock Avenue home, offered to look after his young children when he had child care problems.

Mr Caney started work on June 4 and said he planned to get it done by August 5 to tie in with their daughter Sophia’s 11th bithday.

The extension was to include a bigger bedroom for her and she had been looking forward to moving from a box room.

Gradually Mr Caney’s hours grew increasingly erratic and he started saying he would be unable to work because his van was out of action and he had personal problems.

With the expected completion date passing, they went to a family funeral in Newcastle in August, hoping progress would be made while they were away.

While there he called them to say the roof had collapsed and he needed more materials.

In September, building control inspectors paid a visit and uncovered 17 defects.

Mr Caney assured the couple they were “easy fixes” and were highlighted because building regulations had changed.

By October they were much in need of a holiday and went to Somerset for a week.

But when they returned, the house still looked like a “building site” and damage had been made to their seven-year-old son Harry’s bedroom.

Carl, 38, who works for Greggs and has no building experience, resorted to YouTube to make the roof watertight with help from his 52-year-old mum who is afraid of heights.

Stacey, 32, said: “The problem was the only access we had to the roof was by climbing onto scaffold. So we didn’t really know what was going on.”

In the end Mr Caney said he could not continue. He was coming to pick up his tools to sell them and repay them their money.

The Muntons has no choice but to employ another builder, who according to Stacey “started from scratch”.

Having already forked out just under £40,000 to meet Mr Caney’s growing demands, they now had to borrow £60,000 to get it redone.

Throughout the ordeal Stacey was having to keep Ofsted informed so she could still carry on her business which was not directly affected directly by the work.

After posting a “warning” on social media, Stacey has received several complaints about Mr Caney’s work practices.

She added: “It has put us under a massive strain, I am receiving help from victim support.”

He says he has subsequently spoken to the police about the matter.

Attempting to reach Mr Caney for comment, KentOnline has made several phone calls to a mobile number given to us by the Muntons.

We have email him twice and visted his home address where a letter was dropped off.

At the time of publication, he had not responded.