A cowboy roofer and his sons allegedly scammed Aberdeenshire locals out of tens of thousands of pounds.
Aberdeenshire residents are accusing Duncan MacDonald Snr and his son Duncan MacDonald Jnr of using different roofing companies to rip off locals for more than two years.
Alleged victims also claim that Conor MacDonald, another son of Duncan MacDonald Snr, took part in the swindle.
An earlier investigation published by The Press and Journal revealed that Stonecraft Roofing & Building, A.M Roofing and Deveron Roofing & Building allegedly took money from locals after failing to do the job they were hired to undertake.
The accusations were confirmed a day later by Aberdeenshire Trading Standards, which said work carried out by these companies “has proven to be of a very low standard”.
The council body added that they ‘fraudulently’ used an Aberdeenshire address to trick potential customers and caused further damage to the roofs they had access to.
Both the P&J and Trading Standards revealed that all three companies were run by a Duncan MacDonald.
We can now confirm that there is not just one, but two Duncan MacDonalds behind the scheme.
Victims have identified Duncan MacDonald Snr as the one in charge of Deveron Roofing & Building.
Meanwhile, they claim that his son – also named Duncan MacDonald – was Stonecraft Roofing & Building’s boss.
The P&J has now spoken to two other victims and can confirm that the father and son have been running the elaborate scam since at least July 2022.
Companies run by MacDonald family
We can also reveal the faces of the men behind Deveron and Stonecraft Roofing & Building.
Victims have identified Mr MacDonald Snr and his son Conor as the two people running Deveron Roofing & Building.
Meanwhile, they have confirmed that Mr MacDonald’s other son, also named Duncan, was in charge of Stonecraft.
However, victims claim that Duncan Jnr would sometimes briefly take part in the shambolic work his dad and brother were doing.
Carol Potter, who previously told The P&J she was conned by Deveron, explained the younger Duncan MacDonald came to her property one day for a short time in May 2023.
Meanwhile, a Whitehills resident who reached out to The P&J after the original story has also identified Duncan as one of the workers that came to his property back in 2022.
Additionally, footage caught by Ms Potter’s CCTV shows the vehicle in which Duncan Snr and Conor arrive at her property is a white Renault Trafic van.
While CCTV footage captured by new victim Angela Eddie shows Stonecraft’s Duncan MacDonald next to a white Renault Trafic last August.
The van shown on both CCTV footage has the same number plate.
‘Stonecraft caused further damage to increase quotes’
After publishing the initial investigation, more victims have contacted the P&J to say they were also scammed by the roofing companies.
Angela Eddie, from Aberchirder, said her husband asked Deveron for a quote to fix broken slates in August.
She said: “They gave us a very big quote, so we said no thanks, we’ll look somewhere else.
“Then we contacted Stonecraft, who gave us a quote of £1,800 and came to the house for 45 minutes to an hour.”
Mrs Eddie explained they came down to say the job was going to be much more difficult than initially expected.
They said a lot of rotten wood needed to be replaced.
“They quoted us £9,000 to finish the job so we said no,” she said.
Mrs Eddie then hired another roofer who told them the damage was not that bad and quoted them £3,600.
She added: “The roofer said it looked like the rotten wood had been caused by someone hitting it with a hammer.
“I called them to see if they could come back to fix the damage.
“I had no response and their website was down the next day.”
Whitehills man paid £28k to Duncan MacDonald for roofing job
A Whitehills resident, who has chosen to remain anonymous, told The P&J he hired Deveron Roofing & Building to do large roof repairs and fix several slates in August 2022.
He claims that the man The P&J exposed as Duncan MacDonald Snr worked at the property with two other people until October 2022.
The alleged victim explained Duncan kept increasing the quote blaming “expensive materials”, so he ended up paying £28,000.
However, a few weeks later, when winter arrived, water started to come in.
He attempted to contact Duncan on several occasions but was ghosted.
His last attempt to contact the north-east roofer came more than a year later.
In December 2023, he confronted him over ignored messages and for his “untrue 15-year guarantee”.
Roofer called in to replace Duncan MacDonald’s work
The Whitehills local has spent another £14,000 on a legit roofer and plumber to repair Deveron’s faulty job.
He said: “The new roofer had to replace Duncan’s job.”
He added that the slates were not even nailed in but were held with silicone.
“The joiner said the new wood he had put in the kitchen was not acceptable for the weight of the slates and that he had used the wrong coping stones,” he said.
“It was a bloody shambles.”
Trading Standards said they do not have anything to add to their latest statement.
A spokesperson said: “Nothing further to add, but it would be really helpful for people to know that they can find trusted traders via Aberdeenshire Trusted Trader.”
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