Instyle Pools and Spas owner Simon Chayboub sentenced after building unlicensed

A pool builder was making “defective” pools while uninsured and unlicensed, leaving Sydney homeowners tens of thousands in debt.

Simon Chayboub outside Parramatta Court.

A pool building business obtained over $300k from residents across Sydney while unlicensed and uninsured to build what proved to be unusable pools.

Simon Chayboub, 61, pleaded guilty to three counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, five counts of contracting to do residential building work without a licence, five counts of demanding or receiving payment for building without insurance and four counts of doing residential building work unlicensed.

Chayboub faced Parramatta Local Court on June 23.

Between 2020 and 2021, Chayboub illegally constructed five pools from across Sydney including Glebe, Harrington Park, Luddenham, Kellyville and Woodpark.

Chayboub’s business – “Instyle Pools and Spas” – based in Artarmon – was unlicensed and uninsured to build.

Each victim separately complained about the building work, with one claiming their pool drained empty on two occasions – while another said “nothing worked” after their pool was built, according to the police statement of facts.

A Glebe resident claimed the drainage and plumbing work done on their pool was “ defective”, according to agreed facts.

On several occasions, Chayboub promised the builds to be done “before Christmas”, however the work was often delayed or stalled after workers were unpaid, according to agreed facts.

A screenshot from the Instyle Pools and Spas website. Picture: Instyle Pools and Spas

The Ryde man promised a registered Sydney building company 10 per cent of sales if they signed contracts on his behalf – yet when clients rang the company due to concerns, the company, they claimed “they did not know them (Instyle)” or “knew nothing” about the customers pool.

On one occasion, a Luddenham homeowner was left to pay for a robot cleaners themselves despite Chayboub agreeing to finance it – while others were left without promised features such as mineral pools.

Several residents complained that their pool dimensions were off, while a Woodpark residence was also left with property damage, according to police documents.

Instyle Pools and Spas owner Simon Chayboub.

On numerous occasions, Chayboub would not reply to texts or emails from his disgruntled customers, according to police documents.

Chayboub took extra payment – thousands of dollars – from his client, promising to get council approval for the projects – yet police facts reveal “council never received documents”.

After several complaints, NSW Fair Trading confronted Chayboub in January last year, who declined to speak.

Instyle Pools and Spas were ordered to compensate the victims by NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, however residents were still left with tens of thousands in debt, police facts state.

A Kellyville couple paid the company $44,000 yet only received $28,000 in compensation, tendered facts state.

Chayboub was handed a 10 month suspended prison order to be served in the community as an intensive corrections order.