A BOGUS builder who scammed customers out of thousands of pounds cannot afford to pay them back, Dunfermline Sheriff Court was told.

In the dock was Craig Aitchison, 24, of Sherbrooke Road, Rosyth.

He would quote prices for kitchen installations and other work, take a deposit then disappear with the money.

Aitchison admitted that on March 1 last year at Nether Currie Road, Currie, Edinburgh, he pretended he would carry out work to renovate a room and obtained a deposit of £1,300 by fraud, having no intention of doing the work.

On September 28 at Leadside Crescent, Wellwood, he pretended to a woman he would install a new kitchen and obtained a deposit of £1,400 by fraud.

Then between April 21 and September 27 at Goulden Place, Dunfermline, he pretended he would carry out building work and obtained £3,200 by fraud.

Defence solicitor Peter Robertson said Aitchison had started up a business but debts began mounting up.

“He accepts he should have come clean but he buried his head in the sand,” he added.

He got himself “in a terrible mess” and has no money to pay back to the customers.

Sheriff Krista Johnston told Aitchison: “This must have been very stressful for the people who gave you money.”

She imposed a community payback order with 160 hours of unpaid work and 18 months of supervision.

A proceeds of crime confiscation order hearing will take place on August 14.