A former Canberra builder who preyed on elderly home owners and did substandard and unfinished work around Newcastle and Queanbeyan has pleaded guilty to 28 offences in a NSW court.
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Matthew Geoffrey Rixon, 28, is facing hefty fines for advertising his services as a licensed contractor when he has never held a licence and then doing either substandard work or not finishing jobs.
He accepted thousands of dollars in payments and deposits for jobs at Queanbeyan, Wallsend, Merewether, Eleebana and Lambton last year and continued advertising his services after NSW Fair Trading had issued warnings and sought court orders preventing him from preying on home owners, a statement of facts said.
The shonky builder is due for sentence in the ACT Magistrates Court this month after he pleaded guilty in January to impersonating a police officer while trying to have his ex-girlfriend evicted from her home.
Rixon, formerly of Nelson Bay, now of Caringbah in Sydney, is also awaiting a home detention assessment after he previously pleaded guilty to numerous driving offences.
A warrant was issued for Rixon's arrest last week when he failed to attend Newcastle Local Court, but he handed himself in to police and was granted bail to face court on Tuesday.
He initially pleaded not guilty to the Fair Trading allegations, but he changed those pleas to offences of failing to do work, demanding deposits in excess of 10 per cent and doing work without a licence.
One victim paid a deposit to Rixon and did not hear from him for two weeks before two unknown men arrived at her Eleebana home to install a fence. They did such a poor job she demanded Rixon refund her money before she hired another contractor to do the job properly.
Another victim rang Rixon to get a quote for a job on his Wallsend home before the victim checked to see if Rixon was registered on NSW Fair Trading's website.
When the victim rang Rixon to cancel the job Rixon told him that he was not on Fair Trading's website because his company, Rixco, was incorporated and was therefore regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Neither Rixon nor any of the companies with which he has been associated have ever held a builder's licence, the statement of facts said.
