Customers, subcontractors looking for pool builder Luke Owen Wallace Byers, Vasa Pool Designs

Customers and subcontractors are struggling to track down a disqualified pool builder who was fined for shoddy work and allegedly owes them thousands.

Customers and subcontractors are struggling to track down a disqualified pool builder who was fined for shoddy work, took excessive deposits and allegedly owes them thousands of dollars.

New Zealand-born Luke Owen Wallace Byers, 36, is sole director and shareholder of Swim Quote Australia, which traded as Vasa Pool Designs.

Mr Byers, who is the brother of YouTube baking sensation Elise Strachan, is also a director and shareholder of company Vasa Pool Construction, which does not appear to have ever held a builder licence.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Ms Strachan.

Luke Byers of Vasa Pool Designs.

The company was issued 10 infringement notices with fines totalling more than $20,400 in the two years before its licence was cancelled.

The licence had accumulated a hefty 84 demerits from the QBCC in little over a year, for failing to pay insurance premiums, taking excess deposits and failing to rectify defective work.

A staggering 16 claims were approved under the QBCC’s statutory insurance scheme since 2020-21, and the company was hit with eight separate defective work notices.

The licence was suspended in September 2021 and cancelled in November, however it wasn’t until October 2022 that the QBCC disqualified the company and Mr Byers from holding a licence until October 7, 2025.

A backyard pool installed by Vasa Pool Designs. Picture: Instagram

Vasa Pool Designs customer Adrian Mattke said he paid a $3500 deposit for a pool at his Highgate Hill home in 2019.

When he started having concerns about the company, Mr Mattke said he asked Mr Byers for his money back and was eventually awarded $3500 through the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

However, Mr Mattke has been unable to serve Mr Byers the court papers, so is yet to be paid.

He tracked the builder down to a Gold Coast address, only to find he had “skipped town”.

“I tried to find him and couldn’t find him,” he said.

Image of a pool shell taken from Vasa Pool Design’s Instagram. Picture: Instagram

The Bulletin has attempted to contact Mr Byers, whose email address, phone numbers and company website have all been disconnected.

Court record show plumbing supplier Reece Australia sued Mr Byers and Swim Quote Australia over a $20,500 debt in 2021, claiming a security interest in the Tanah Merah home he owned with his wife Gemma.

Reece’s claim asked the court to order a sale of the property to recoup the debt – plus costs of $6000 – and/or that liquidators to be appointed to the company to then sell the house.

No further documents have been filed in the case, and the company was not placed into liquidation.

Property records show Mr Byers built a $131,000 swimming pool at the Tanah Merah home before selling it for $808,000 June last year.

A crane subcontractor, who worked for Vasa Pool Designs for more than two years, said he was still owed around $14,000, but had given up chasing it.

“Apparently he’s gone to New Zealand or Europe,” the subbie said.

“We were contacting him weekly, sometimes twice a week and he kept promising us the money but we never got it.”

A backyard pool installed by Vasa Pool Designs. Picture: Instagram

Vasa customer Christine Nicol said she filed a complaint with the QBCC after she was left with an unapproved pool and non-compliant fencing.

She claimed the ordeal, which began when she signed a contract for a plunge pool and fencing in February 2019, had left her thousands of dollars out of pocket.

Three years on, she is still waiting for $4000 in compensation promised to her, and said she had been forced to take court action to recover the money instead.

“It started to drag on a little bit by about May – (the company) started to get slacker with communication,” she said.

“We ended up getting the final inspector to come out and certify the pool, but he found numerous errors just in the fencing and compliance.”

A backyard pool being installed. Picture: Instagram

Ms Nicol said the council later informed her there had not been any approval sought for the pool to be installed in the first place.

She said Mr Byers had agreed to get the approval and fix the non-compliant areas of fencing, but never did so. Ms Nicol then filed a complaint with the QBCC.

“The QBCC fixed everything under insurance and they sent him the bill, plus fined him, plus removed a third of all his building licence points,” she said.

“They explained to me, once he loses all of them, he would lose his licence.”

A statement from the QBCC did not answer specific questions about Vasa Pools or Mr Byers, but said it could “only suspend or cancel a licensee for a defined number of reasons under the QBCC Act.

“This does not include the accumulation of a number of infringement notices,” the statement said.

“The QBCC advises anyone seeking to contract with a QBCC licensee to check the licensee’s full licence history and to ensure that they hold the appropriate licence for the work they are being asked to perform.”

The statement said builders on a three-year disqualification could face a lifetime ban if they accumulated another 30 demerits over a three-year period.