A WOEFUL workman who left his customers thousands of pounds out-of-pocket with a series of botched jobs has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Michael Tolliday was told by a judge that he had wreaked "misery, loss and inconvenience" on householders who used his Stockton-based fitting firm.

The 44-year-old took on contracts for £60,000 of work in little over a year - but left more than half of it outstanding, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Tolliday, of Pendle Close, Peterlee, County Durham, was described by his barrister as running a business that was "simply chaotic" with no accounting.

But Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, said: "At best I suppose it could be said you were incompetent, at worst dishonest, or a combination of both."

Tolliday admitted 11 fraud charges as well as lying about having trade body accreditation and failing to give written notice of "cooling off" periods.

The court heard yesterday (Tuesday) that police got involved when angry customers were causing a stir outside his Kitchen Logic business premises in Hartburn.

Stockton Council took up the case, and during an investigation discovered that there were 12 householders who had complaints against Tolliday.

In total, they handed over £42,197 after agreeing deals to have kitchens, bathrooms or bedrooms fitted, prosecutor Rebecca Brown told the court.

Tolliday was responsible for delayed starts to contracts, shoddy workmanship, starting jobs that were never finished or taking money and not providing what was promised.

Duncan McReddie, mitigating, told the court that Tolliday tried to get cash from one job to help pay for the previous one when it ran into trouble.

When he was confronted by disgruntled customers, the fitter was "irate, threatening and abusive" and even told one they were "full of f***ing crap".

He told one client he should not have taken on their job because his business was not yet established - yet went on to agree even more contracts.

Tolliday admitted 11 charges of fraud between October 2012 and November last year, as well as three counts of engaging in an unfair commercial practice.

Judge Bourne-Arton told him: "This is a history of you taking money, a history of you making promises and a history of you making false promises.

"This is not a case of you making promises in the hope or expectation you could fulfil them. It is a case of you making promises you knew full well you could not meet."

Several times Tolliday tried to interject from the dock, and the judge told him: "Despite you shaking your head at me, this is my finding on the evidence.

"You knew when making those promises you had no realistic basis of you fulfilling them, so it was a case of you taking money having made false promises."