Email recieved from Anon, Kent

Email recieved from Anon - Kent, and posted here in the hope that it will benifit others.....

Dear Mr RippedOff

Oh my gosh - I am flabbergasted at the vast amount of response regarding Lincoln McLean! Thank goodness I decided to do another search on Lincoln McLean today (just out of sheer curiousity) to see if there was any latest news on him.

I, too, am one of his victims! I would be grateful if you could add my following comments to your blog - the more we have on the internet about this man the better. If only I had found comments like this online when I initially searched on his name, I would never have parted with any money.

I first came into contact with this lying cheat in April 2007, when he was put in touch with me via Kitchensforsale website. I told them I was moving to Kent and wanted a local kitchen fitter etc. Anyway, before I agreed to anything with Lincoln, I searched the internet to see if there was any bad feedback on the guy - but there was nothing at all, just a couple of ads in some directories. So I thought, ok, that's a good sign! NOT!!!

From the moment I moved into the property in July 07, those first few weeks were such a whirlwind of events that almost brought me close to a nervous breakdown. I was already recovering from battling cancer for 2 years so having to go through such an awful experience with that horrible man was almost too much to bear.

He conned me out of £10,500 over a 2 week period and I received very little to show for my money. There were so many arguments between him and my brother (my brother sussed early on that something wasn't right with this guy but I am too trusting, unfortunately, so it took at least a week before I realised my brother was right).

Lincoln can be quite aggressive and overpowering and I felt so intimidated by him and was reduced to tears on many occasions. He bullied me, literally, into keep handing over more and more money - obviously, my main concern was that having handed over £5,000 deposit, if I pulled out of the agreement I would probably lose it all. He wears you down with his fast-talking, piles of excuses and reasons why he needs "more money". And when you start to stand up to him that's when he turns nasty.

He lies profusely - everything he told me from start to finish was based on lies. The whole lot. I paid for a kitchen I didn't receive (I received parts of another kitchen from a different company), I paid for top quality flooring which I didn't receive (B&Q value laminate turned up which I sent back!!), I paid for labouring work that was never done and some of the work that did get done has since had to be re-done because it was shoddy and unsafe (electrics being one of the things), the couple of young lads he brought in to do some decorating work on my lounge (this was an "extra" job that he had agreed to do "for free") were complete cowboys and damaged the walls so badly that I had to have the walls re-plastered. I paid him for a range cooker twice and still didn't receive it so I've since had to buy it myself. The list goes on and on. I have since had to re-mortgage my property in order to have all the work completed - so in reality I have paid for the job and most materials twice over.

Basically, there are so many things I could tell you about my experience with Lincoln McLean - but it literally runs into pages. (My witness statement to the DTI for the court case ran into 25 pages!!)

As soon as I pulled him off the job, I went all out to try to get this man stopped. I contacted Kitchensforsale - explained everything to them but they were not willing to accept liability for anything but agreed to remove his details from their website and would not be recommending him to further clients.

I then contacted the DTI and gave them a statement of what happened. They already knew of him from his previous wrongdoings.

I found out from Companies House that he was a long-term bankrupt (evidence that he had been involved in bad business dealings in the past).

I reported him for using a fake VAT number and for using letterheaded paper with his old company name on and for failing to notify me of his bankruptcy before taking on any work.

I contacted the companies that he had used to supply certain goods to me and let them know that he was a rogue trader and that if they valued their reputation they would have nothing more to do with him. The kitchen company in Dover that he used were very shocked by Lincoln's bad practices and after investigating it for themselves said they didn't want to do business with him again. They said they would contact other kitchen companies in Kent to warn them about Lincoln and to avoid taking any orders from him.

I contacted Watchdog and Rogue Traders - Watchdog contacted me recently as they were going to cover this story in the new series - but the investigator on the court case told me I was not legally able to give out information as Lincoln had not been to court at that time.

I contacted some of the companies from the brochures that Lincoln used to lure me into hiring him.

I also contacted the local police one time when Lincoln was threatening to come to my house - he was annoyed because Kitchensforsale had removed him from their website and he said I had caused him to "lose business"! Well GOOD! He shouldn't be doing business in the first place.

Then the DTI contacted me to say they were taking him to court and wanted my statement. I have recently heard that he pleaded GUILTY to all charges and is awaiting sentence. Of course, pleading guilty means he will get a lesser sentence.

I just hope that the Judge gives us some justice for all the stress and financial loss that we have all suffered. This man needs to be punished not just given another telling off and allowed to continue trading falsely again (which is what he will, do doubt, do). There should be much stronger laws in force regarding these rogue traders.

To all those people who were conned by this man - you have my fullest sympathy as a fellow victim. I know the hell you have been through as I have been there too. I have been hoping and waiting for the day when I would find other victims of Lincoln Mclean to see if they went through similar things as myself. I knew you were out there somewhere! We are not stupid people for falling for his lies - he is just an accomplished liar able to fool just about anyone. I don't know if we shall ever get over the ordeal we've been through but we all must try to move on with our lives and put this all down to a bad experience - and learn from it.

As for Lincoln "the Liar" McLean - I don't think he will ever learn his lesson. Do you? My best wishes to you all.