'Just devastated': Further victims of rogue tradesmen come forward

"My heart bleeds for the young couple because I know how I have felt – you are just devastated."

The words of pensioner Janet Gibbon, who believes she was also a victim of the same tradesman.

She was speaking after the Express & Star revealed a couple from the Black Country had been left with virtually nothing after a removal firm drove off with their belongings worth £10,000.

Becky Szenk, 22, and her partner Mark Higgins had booked a removal worker advertised on Facebook as Lee Green to help them move from their Bilston flat to the pub which Mr Higgins manages in Walsall Wood. But the van with their possessions never arrived.

Police are investigating the alleged theft.

Now, 72-year-old Mrs Gibbon, of Cheslyn Hay, has spoken of her experience and believes she was also a victim of the same man.

She said she was left devastated when she hired firm by the name Lee Green, which was advertised on Facebook, to convert her garage and replace her kitchen – but claims the work was left unfinished after handing over £7,000.

Also today, a mother-of-five Louise Briscoe claimed some of her belongings including family heirlooms went missing when hiring a firm by the same name for a house move from Walsall to Pelsall last year.

Mrs Gibbon said she hired a firm in June last year and workers turned up at her home and started to work on the carport.

She dealt with a man she believed to be Mr Green, who she said even came back with his baby to put together an IKEA cupboard, Mrs Gibbon said.

Returning another morning, he told her they could start properly if she gave them £7,000 for the materials. But they never returned and she could not contact them.

When Mrs Gibbon, of Leveson Avenue, and her daughter saw a post on Facebook just days later about another woman who Mr Green had allegedly deceived, she contacted the police and trading standards.

Mrs Gibbon, who had to spend a further £4,000 to get someone else to fix some of the work, said: "It is difficult because I am on my own, I am 72.

"I don't know anything about stuff like this, and am probably a bit gullible, but we did have quotes off other people."

She added: "He was a lovely person. He was the perfect gentleman."

Miss Briscoe said she hired a man advertised as Lee Green on Facebook to move her belongings from Walsall to Pelsall in November last year.

Miss Briscoe and her children were due to move into their new home on a Sunday but arrived to find their boxes had been dumped in the middle of the lounge and the beds had not been put together as promised, she claims.

To add to an already stressful situation, she soon discovered the new trays of prescription milk her six-month-old son Harrison is tube-fed with and requires to survive, had gone missing, she said.

Harrison suffers from a number of rare conditions affecting his spine and heart.

Initially, Miss Briscoe thought the firm had just not finished the job, but as days went by and she began to unpack, she claimed to have discovered a number of other items had disappeared, including a laptop, kitchen appliances, and personal documents.

She dealt with a man she believed to be Mr Green.

Miss Briscoe, aged 34, whose children are aged 15 months to 11 years old, claims as well as £1,000 worth of her belongings disappearing, a further £1,000 worth of furniture, including wardrobes, a bed, and her son's sleep apnoea machine were damage.

When Miss Briscoe initially contacted police, she was only aware of the milk missing and was told it was a civil matter as he did not complete a job, she said.

She said she had contacted Miss Szenk when she heard about her plight.

Police are trying to trace Mr Green after he disappeared with the contents of 22-year-old Miss Szenk's flat.

Police say they are investigating what happened last Friday and are following several lines of inquiry, issuing a warning for people to be aware of bogus workmen and removal men.

Last night, £4,520 had been donated by 155 people on the fundraising page www.gofundme.com/cy5dumm9. Lee Green was unavailable for comment.