Belper kitchen boss sentenced after customers lost thousands

Sonna Kitchens was based in Chapel Street, Belper

A kitchen company boss who left customers thousands of pounds out of pocket has been sentenced.

Sonny Shacklock, director of Sonna Kitchens Ltd in Belper, Derbyshire, was investigated following complaints to trading standards officers.

Customers said work they paid for was only partially completed or not done at all.

The 40-year-old was given a suspended sentence at Derby Crown Court after pleading guilty to 10 charges.

Shacklock, of Harvest Crescent, Waltham, Lincolnshire, was charged personally in his role as director of the business, after Derbyshire County Council's trading standards team was contacted by unhappy customers who had paid large amounts of money to replace their kitchens.

Eleanor Plant and her family lost £19,000 on a kitchen that was never fitted

Nine witnesses said they had been told when arranging the contracts that their deposits were safe as they had been told the business used an insurance policy to protect payments.

These policies were not created and the money remained unprotected.

As a result of the breaches of contract, in total, the customers are owed more than £59,000, which they cannot recover through civil recovery due to the company's insolvency.

Shacklock admitted engaging in commercial practice which is a misleading action containing false information.

He was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and pay a victim surcharge of £156, as well as being disqualified from acting as a company director for five years.

'Soul-destroying'

Sam Martin, from Kirk Hallam in Derbyshire, was one of the customers who was misled, initially losing about £18,500, before 80% of this was recovered by card company Visa.

He said: "It really affected me. I work for the Royal Mail and the entire money he took was all of my wages for all of Covid.

"When he left us without a kitchen, we didn't even have a kitchen sink. The entire thing had been stripped out."

He described the experience as "soul-destroying" and said Shacklock's eight-month suspended sentence was "not at all" enough.

"At least we got a kitchen in the end. There's some people out there who are never going to recover from this," he added.

Mrs Plant said she was forced to fork out another £16,000 for another kitchen, as it was needed for an extension on her house

Eleanor Plant, 34, from Belper, said she lost £19,000 in 2022 on a kitchen that was never fitted.

The mother of two said she and her husband had been since forced to pay £16,000 for another kitchen, as it was needed for an extension on their house.

She said they paid the balance of the kitchen only days before she was due to give birth to her second child in August 2022, and found out about the problems with Sonna Kitchens a couple of months later on Facebook while up with her newborn in the middle of the night.

She said: "The initial impact was horrifying emotionally."

Mrs Plant said she was forced to end maternity leave early after six months because of the money they lost, and had to reduce her first child's hours at nursery from full-time to one day a week.

"We had to make significant lifestyle changes - we wanted to treat our children but could not do it," she added.

As they paid by bank transfer, none of their money has been recovered, although Shacklock had reassured the couple they were insured when they were not.

Now he has been sentenced, Mrs Plant said: "I am glad it is all over but it is not the sentence we wanted."

Shacklock was sentenced at Derby Crown Court

Carol Hart, the county council's cabinet member for health and communities, said: "The sentence handed down by the court sends out a strong message that this kind of underhand trading will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences.

"It is very sad and frustrating that the customers left out of pocket have no route to go down to recoup their losses.

"But I hope they can take some comfort in knowing that this dishonest businessman has been successfully prosecuted for his actions."