Rogue traders targeted my home, council boss says

A council boss is warning others after rogue traders damaged his roof and attempted to "extort cash" from his wife.

Alan Graves, leader of Reform UK-led Derbyshire County Council, said his home had been targeted after he requested a roofing quote through a trader directory website on 19 May.

Graves said the "hostile and menacing" men left his Barrow‑upon‑Trent home after he spoke to them on the phone, having demanded £150 from his wife and £300 to fix damage they caused, which she refused.

Derbyshire Police said inquiries were ongoing and no arrests had been made.

Graves said two of the men had retrieved ladders and climbed on to the roof "without invitation", while a third man "distracted" his wife.

The roofing quote was made via myjobquote.co.uk, he said, which connects homeowners and businesses with local tradespeople.

Myjobquote had sent him an email introducing him to a company that was "two months old with no reviews", he said.

In a statement to the BBC, a spokesperson for the website said it was "very sorry" to hear about Graves's "upsetting" experience.

The trader account, created at the end of March, has been disabled, it said.

Graves said the traders used his quotation request to find his address and arrived "within three hours" in a van bearing "false number plates".

"Three men used a website to identify my home as a target, drove from the Coventry and Nuneaton area on false number plates, went on to my roof and deliberately damaged it, then stood in my driveway demanding cash from my wife while she was on her own," said Graves.

"That is not a tradesperson getting a bad review. That is a criminal gang operating with a practised, organised method."

When Graves raised the incident with myjobquote, he said the company had pointed him to its terms and conditions, telling him they "bear no responsibility for the conduct of traders using its platform and that it is up to householders to protect themselves".

"Had this been an elderly person living alone, I have no doubt they would have handed over the cash," said Graves.

"This is happening on a website actively marketing itself to homeowners across the country. Residents of Derbyshire - and everywhere else - need to know."

Myjobquote said it always advised homeowners to carry out their own "due diligence" before choosing a trade, just as they would if they found a trade through a newspaper or Google Local.

"That said, I accept that we should have shown more empathy and confirmed to Mr Graves that we would be removing this trade's access to our site," the spokesperson added.

"I would like to apologise once again for what happened, and I will be reaching out to Mr Graves personally to express this myself."

Graves has written to Derbyshire County Council Trading Standards requesting an investigation into both the traders and myjobquote's vetting procedures.

Graves said he had also written to the justice secretary regarding platform accountability.

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