“Hired Tony Walters of the Modern Landscaper in July 2020 to prepare groundwork for a garden office, so my husband could work from home during COVID. He was then to return to landscape the entire garden as we live in a clay rich area so it was a bog to walk across. Things started out good but around mid October 2020, he downed tools to go work on another job even though we had paid him just over £10,000 by this point, on the understanding that he and his team would be working on our garden alone. They left our driveway a complete mess and despite repeated requests and promises to clear it before Halloween when we were expecting guests, they never followed through which was a source of much embarrassment as we had lots of people walking past our house daily for the village Halloween trail event.
By the time they returned it was mid December so we sat Tony down and said it was clear to us, they weren't even halfway done and were never going to complete before Christmas (despite the fact it was supposed to be finished before Halloween). So it was agreed they would make things neat and tidy so our garden was somewhat useable over Xmas, and the waste was carted away.
My husband had to work abroad for two months in Jan & Feb 2021 (something we had made Tony well aware of long in advance), and I am bed bound and was starting new treatment while my husband was away, so I couldn't accommodate them during this time. Something we had also made Tony aware of, so we agreed he'd return 8 March 2021.
March came, Tony didn't. It was always next week, next week, next week, until he finally came back sometime in April 2021 (something he tried to put on us that we stopped him from working on our garden for almost 4 months when we had to chase him to return since March, but of course narcissists always twist something they’ve done, and blame it on the other party to suit their needs).
Since his return we counted a total of about 6 full days worked in total, so our garden was barely changed from the state they'd left it in Dec 2020. In the end Tony parted us from £17,000 for a job that has been since quoted as needing at least £15,000 to make right. I wish the story ended there but one thing that kept playing on our minds was that he had barely delivered any of the materials, we'd been forced to pay for upfront.
We repeatedly followed up on this, even calling his supplier to confirm the porcelain was in stock which they did, and said if Tony ordered it that day (Wed), it would arrive by Friday. Tony agreed to do so, but the next morning he reneged on this agreement and said he wanted to take us up on our previous offer of mediation. At this point it became clear, he either didn't have the money to pay for materials, or had no intention of completing our garden, and mediation was merely a stalling tactic, so we refused.
We began to look into his business history (free to view on Companies House) and found that he had a previous company, FEM Fencing and Landscaping Ltd struck off by companies house for never once submitting a return and it also had a county court judgement (CCJ) against it. We then found another company called Absolute Landscaping XL Ltd, also in the process of being struck off, also with a CCJ, and no returns ever filed. This we felt begged the question - how much must a Director have to hide if they won't even submit a confirmation statement, never mind their actual tax returns to HMRC?
We also found he had at least 5 known CCJs against him personally as he was now operating as a sole trader, and what HMRC refer to as a "Phoenix Director". Someone who sets up companies and as soon as they burn their reputation, set up a rebranded company from the ashes, and carry on doing more of the same.
After this I left a negative review on his Facebook page and shortly thereafter received a barrage of verbally abusive messages from his mate Jamie, accusing us of never having paid Tony. Word reached us that Tony Walters himself, was going around telling this same libellous story to our neighbours so eventually I had to post proof that we had paid him on our village group page, and warned others not to use him. He had also openly admitted to us that he purposefully stays with friends to avoid bailiffs as most of his CJJs appear to be unpaid, dating back to 2014. Yet his Modern Landscaper Instagram account is full of fine dining pictures, holidays, and lavish gifts for his kids, which ours and other people's hard earning savings and cash have clearly paid for.
Since posting on our village group, I have had dozens of people reach other to me sharing similar stories: Tony demands a large deposit of £8,000 "for materials", never starts the job on time, and progress is always slow. One woman reported paying him this £8,000 deposit and he still hasn't turned up to begin the work. When I think of the number of vulnerable elderly pensioners that are prime targets for someone like Tony Walters who conducts themselves in this manner, it really makes my blood boil, as they have a limited income and no means to go out and make more money to make up for their losses, so will likely have to forgo things like heating during the winter and reduce their overall expenses.
Since then have found a few other dodgy things like we paid a Mr Tony A. Walters according to his bank details, but on the last census he reported his name as being Tony CW Walters. I have reported this to Action Fraud for further investigation.
Additionally, we reported him to child services as his Instagram depicted several occasions where he had his children working on site (all now deleted I notice). Added to our own experience of him bringing his son to work on our garden, with no protective gear supplied to him, while heavy machinery like stone cutting blades were being operated. My husband eventually had to ask Tony to take his son home as we were uncomfortable with it. Since then we’ve learned he doesn’t have insurance, so if an accident had happened on our property, we would have been personally liable.
I can go on and on but I think this much is clear: he is a purposeful scammer in my opinion, who does a few good small jobs in a location at a good price, sets up his signs everywhere, so you think he can be trusted l then targets those who are drawn in by his cheap quote and conman charm. If you look at his website and Instagram, you’ll also notice that a lot of pictures are taken at night, which I can now confirm, conceals a multitude of poor workmanship while appearing to look professionally finished.”
