Pool builder Peter Wotton fined $105,000 in Elizabeth Magistrates Court

A pool builder who took tens of thousands of dollars for jobs he didn’t finish or that needed to be fixed has copped a huge fine and a big ban.

A dodgy pool builder has been fined $105,000 for taking money and failing to complete jobs, or performing such poor work it had to be redone.

Peter Wotton, 56, of Burnside, was fined in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court and disqualified from managing corporations for eight years after he was found guilty of accepting payments for services and failing to provide them in a reasonable time and working without a license.

Consumer and Business Services found that Mr Wotton had accepted payment from four customers between $1300 and $47,100 for a range of building services, including installing fences, pools, automatic doors and outdoor bathrooms.

In each instance, Mr Wotton failed to complete the work or a separate contractor was hired to fix botched jobs.

A backyard swimming pool. Picture: File

Mr Wotton was also fined $175,000 in August 2018 for similar acts.

Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, Dini Soulio, said Mr Wotton had not learned from previous offending.

“In one instance, a consumer paid more than $32,000 to Wotton to build a pool, only to learn the fencing wasn’t straight, the filter pump wasn’t secured to the ground and the pool itself had a crack in the bottom – damage so bad the consumer was told it would be cheaper to install a new pool than repair the crack,” he said.

“Wotton has form – he has prior convictions for similar offending, and clearly knew he was engaged in unlawful behaviour.”