A COUPLE who were labelled as having "Champagne taste with a beer budget" have hit back at the accusation.

Stephen and Wendy Halliman dismissed the claim made by the solicitor of a building contractor who they are engaged in a legal dispute with.

The couple hired Jonathan Harrison to build them a new home on the Wynyard estate but their relationship broke down midway through the project when the couple raised concerns about the builder’s misuse of trade accreditations.

As a result of the Halliman’s complaints the builder, who owns Sight Construction Limited, pleaded guilty to breaching fair trading regulations when he appeared at Teesside Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

It was during the court hearing that the couple were accused of wanting a house worth £1.5m building for £175,000 – triggering the "Champagne" reference.

The couple, who are renting a house on the same estate where they are getting their home new home built, challenged the claims.

Mr Halliman said: “It raised a smile from my wife and I when we read that the builder’s solicitor had suggested in court we had ‘Champagne taste with a beer budget’ – I’ve been a successful businessman for more almost 40 years but not even I could negotiate a deal as good as persuading Mr Harrison to a build a £1.5m house for only £175,000.

“The fact is that we are building a smaller home for our retirement rather than a massive mansion with a swimming pool and all the extras you would expect for the exaggerated sum of money mentioned in court.

“That said, the overall budget for the house still amounts to £750,000 and Mr Harrison was only contracted to build the shell of the property. Everything else including heating, windows, kitchen, internal fittings etc, would all be contracted to specialist tradesmen, as is often the case with self-build projects of this kind.

“As mentioned in court, there is now an ongoing civil case in relation to the contract with Mr Harrison.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Stockton Borough Council’s trading standards team for recognising the seriousness of Mr Harrison’s offences with relation to the misuse of a variety of quality and trust marks.”