We paid our builder £44k then he had us arrested

Davies says: "Hate's a strong word, but I genuinely can't think of another sort of person who would do this. He's the lowest of the low.

"He masquerades as someone who can do all these things, but, when you get under the surface, he's incapable."

While Figg was only sentenced for what he did at the Davies household, the court heard he was being investigated for potential crimes against four other unnamed victims.

Gemma Hemmings says not long after she had given birth, she was confronted by Figg, who was armed with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer.

She could only watch as he destroyed her garden office in a dispute over payment.

Hemmings, 40, and her husband, Steve, 38, had paid Figg almost £100,000 to build the office and extend their house in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in 2021.

But they angered him by withholding a final payment, instructing him to first complete his shoddy work to a higher standard.

"We watched while he destroyed everything with a big smile on his face. It was terrifying," Hemmings recalls.

"He was someone who'd been in our house and around our children. We'd let him into our family."

The couple had to stay away from their house with their newborn for 10 weeks while Figg continued to make excuses for the work dragging out over nine months.

Hemmings continues: "I look back and I don't know how Steve and I are still together. It destroyed our marriage.

"The pressure it put on our family life was incredible; it was just incredible and terrifying."

Despite their experience, Hemmings feels they are among the luckier of Figg's victims. Unlike others, their house had been left with windows, walls and a roof.

However, they remember Figg as an intimidating man who made them so paranoid they set up cameras in their home.

"If you'd asked me four years ago, I'd have probably said I wanted him dead," Hemmings says.

"But now I don't think about the man. He's getting everything he deserves for what he did to us and those people after us.

"I think he's one of the worst people I've ever met."

Nick Marns, an insurance broker from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, does not consider himself lucky.

He paid Figg a "substantial" amount of money to double the size of his two-bed property in 2017, but it was instead gutted and left a shambles.

Marns was left homeless and needing counselling as a result.

"When building control came, he said it was the worst build he'd ever seen in his career," the 41-year-old says.

Pictures of the mess, which included 10 tonnes of rubble, speak for themselves. It was not until June 2018 that Marns could return to his home.

The stressful process put pressure on his relationship and led to him having a mental breakdown, he says.

Marns describes Figg as a "manipulative" man who would lie at any opportunity to cover himself.

"He's a weasel of a man because every time he's confronted, he becomes sick or says one of his family members has died," says Marns, who now lives in Dubai.

"It still turns my stomach with hatred because of what he did to our lives. He dismantled our lives."

Do you have a story suggestion for Essex? Contact us below.

Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.