A LARGS pensioner has won a battle with a building firm he claims took almost £1,000 from him for works they never finished.

Mike Cavanagh, 84, hit out at All Seasons Landscaping and Groundworks Ltd after a wrangle over what he described as a 'shoddy' job to sort out his back garden.

The OAP says their workmen left the job half-complete and vanished - despite repeated attempts to contact them.

The firm this week agreed to refund hundreds of pounds as a 'goodwill gesture' after the News stepped in.

Mr Cavanagh, of Auchenmaid Drive, says he contacted the firm asking for a quote for replacement works to be carried out at his back door patio - and paid £850 upfront for the job.

He says the job was never finished but the landscaping company have denied letting the local pensioner down - and say they did a job befitting of the price.

Mr Cavanagh says that although new paving was put down in one section, the levelling up of around 25 slabs of the patio was never done, work which he claims he had asked for.

Mike said: "The company first contacted me around Christmas time and offered to do gardening work. They gave me a card which had their phone number on it and I kept it handy.

"My back garden patio had become quite uneven over the years with the sand subsiding and I wanted to get it nice and level again - the company agreed to lift the slabs and re-set them.

"The company wanted paid in advance, so I gave them the agreed figure of £850. They replaced the slabs which were broken with new slabs and all seemed well.

"They then stopped working, citing bad weather, and I made a number of phone calls to them asking when the remainder of the work would be carried."

"They left a slab and a bag of cement as if they had every intention of coming back, but they never did. It was shoddy at best.

"I kept phoning the number I had day after day but the phone appeared to have been switched off. I eventually got through but still wasn't able to get anywhere with them about what I believe I had already paid for.

"I don't understand why you would walk off a job with no word to the customer until it is completed to everyone's satisfaction."

However, All Seasons Landscaping told the News that all the work which was carried out in the back garden was what had been agreed. They say the lifting and the levelling of the remaining slabs was additional work, and that there had been 'a misunderstanding'.

A spokesperson said: "We dug all the concrete out at the area where the new slabs were to be put in, and then had to take that up to the quarry - it cost us £82 to dump the rubbish alone.

"We had three men who put in two days full work - and did what was agreed.

"We put down the slabs and hardcored it - and the client seemed very happy with the works, but then he asked us what about doing the rest.

"The levelling off of the remaining part was not part of the job as far as we are concerned. We offered him a price initially for doing the whole section months ago, but he didn't take that up..

"As far as I am concerned we did a good job which was what was agreed to and there has been a misunderstanding. We are not cowboy builders or scammers or anything like that.

""We are happy to pay Mr Kavanagh £300 as a goodwill gesture and finish off the strip with the last of the new slabs."