8 hours Ago By [email protected] (Elliot Jessett)
'This was all of the money I had in the world and we had such happy plans for it' Dozens of families across Merseyside say they have been left financially and emotionally devastated by the actions of a home improvement company and its director. An investigation by the Liverpool ECHO has led to three of these families describing what happened after contracting a Kirkby-based firm for their renovation projects. They each claim to have entrusted their life savings to Celsius Home Improvements, but said they were left with half-finished, derelict properties, while company director, Frank Deary lived in his multi-million pound home in Aughton, West Lancashire.
All the claims made about Mr Deary in this article have been put to him. Despite numerous efforts to reach him, Mr Deary has not provided any comments for publication, although at one stage he indicated he would do so. At one point, he referred the ECHO to a public relations representative he said would respond on his behalf, but this representative told us they were no longer acting for Mr Deary.
Tracy Daly and her partner, Robert Cannon have two young children and live in Anfield with Tracy's mum, Elaine Obrien. For the past year, Tracy and Robert have been sharing a mattress on the living room floor next to their kids who sleep on a pull-out sofa bed. While Tracy’s mum rests in a gutted front bedroom with no electricity or heating, the family spend the rest of their time in the overcrowded reception room downstairs.
It is the only liveable area in the house and they must all use it to eat, sleep, work and play. The rest of the property is in ruins as the family exists in an ongoing nightmare. “It’s hard to describe what it’s like, living like this”, Tracy said.
“Every day, we wake up wishing this never happened.” The family’s ordeal began in 2023 when Elaine decided to sell her home and invest her life savings - more than £70,000 - into creating a loft extension and ‘granny flat’ within her daughter’s house. Tracy and Rob wanted a reliable contractor so started to do their due diligence and were soon in receipt of an impressive looking brochure advertising the exact services they were looking for.
Enter Celsius Home Improvements and Frank Deary. At that time, Celsius was a member of FairTrades - an organisation which includes access to the government-endorsed TrustMark Scheme. The programme is designed to give homeowners reassurance by signposting them to vetted and accredited tradespeople for home improvements.
FairTrades and TrustMark then cancelled Celsius’ membership. In a letter to one complainant sent in June 2024 FairTrades wrote: "We made a decision to remove their membership as they failed to comply with both the FairTrades & TrustMark Code of Conduct - this became apparent due to a number of complaints we received in a short period." At first, Tracy and Rob were impressed with what they'd seen about Celsius and parent company Clearmetric Ltd.
The firm was recommended to them by a satisfied customer and they were delighted when Mr Deary turned up and began selling them his vision of what their house could eventually look like. Tracy recalled: “He was walking from room to room, upselling us on what could be achieved.” Celsius quoted £74,000 for the work and promised completion in ten weeks - the family agreed and paid a 30% deposit upfront.
What followed - they say - was a cycle of delays, excuses and escalating payments. Tracy said they paid the deposit in November 2023 but work didn’t start until January 15, 2024 after they paid an additional 20% of the job’s value. Then, in February, Celsius workers gutted the loft, exposed it to the elements—and then left.
Tracy said the house remained a construction site for months, with intermittent visits from workers who seemed to have no clear direction. By July, there was a roofless upper floor, ruined furniture, and a public pathway outside shattered by falling steel supports, she said. According to Tracy’s recollection, she repeatedly tried to contact Mr Deary after becoming worried about delays and the state of her home.
Tracy added: "He told us he would not make a profit out of our job and there was hardly any incentive left for him as all of the delays had cost him money. "So rather than accepting responsibility or compensating us for loss and damage, he said he'd have to charge us more money for the 'extra work'." After severing ties with Mr Deary’s firm, Tracy said an inspector hired by her confirmed what the family already believed: the work done by Celsius was incomplete and ”far from ideal”.
Tracy said she was advised by other contractors the cost to repair the property and finish the project would run into the tens of thousands of pounds and subsequently accepted a quote for £60,000. Tracy said: "The house was just left with exposed wiring, nails, holes and debris left everywhere. "For the last year, we've all been sleeping and living in the front room - me and Rob are on one bed and the kids are next to us in their bed.
"It is a living nightmare and everyday we wake up wishing this never happened. It has broken our hearts. “For me and Rob and my mum, it's devastating, but when I think of the kids, I get really emotional because you only get one childhood and it's being taken away day by day.
They hate their own home and that is difficult for a mum to hear and see everyday." Tracy's mum Elaine added: "This was all of the money I had in the world and we had such happy plans for it.” She said Frank Deary had shattered their dreams.
Tracy’s story is not unique. The ECHO has uncovered a network of 28 households who claim they entrusted their savings to Celsius and are unhappy with the work done on their homes. Their combined financial outlay totals almost £1.
5m. The 28 households connected through Instagram, Trustpilot, Google reviews and Facebook , eventually forming a WhatsApp support group. The ECHO met with 15 of these households and listened to their claims against Mr Deary’s companies.
Numerous families claim Frank Deary told them Celsius would be using their property as a 'show home' and would ensure the job was done to the highest possible standards. They said Mr Deary assured them that this was one of the reasons the price was so 'reasonable' because he would be using their property to advertise for more business in their respective areas. This was the sales pitch offered to Bob and Julie Doherty, a retired couple from Maghull .
After contracting Celsius, they said their dream extension turned into a £148,000 disaster, plus an additional £42,000 in extra costs. Their home was gutted, leaving them living in a work shed for nine months. The couple showed the ECHO documents detailing how the first quote provided by Frank Deary's company was £130,000, but they paid him a total £148,104.
They have now been told by another contractor they will need to spend an additional £55,000 to complete the project and make their home habitable. Bob and Julie began negotiating with Mr Deary in May 2024 and, as they neared an agreement, the couple checked out the company website which was 'slick and well-presented' and started to look on Google and Trustpilot for reviews published by Mr Deary's other customers. There were several positive reviews but they noticed a couple of negative comments which they asked Mr Deary about.
They said he told them the reviews were down to one staff member not turning up for work and assured them he had been let go. The couple were satisfied with the explanation and proceeded to exchange contracts with Celsius. Photos seen by the ECHO detail the timeline of works carried out by Celsius and show the transformation of a once well-presented family home into a building site.
The kitchen, bathroom and living spaces were completely off limits and the outhouse was left in a derelict condition. According to Bob and Julie, this is how the project was left by Celsius before they finally terminated their contract in January this year. They have now engaged other contractors and work has restarted.
Bob said: "People can ask how this could happen, how we could give him the money we did and to be honest we're still not sure. "You're placed in an impossible and really vulnerable position at every stage because you start with paying 20%-30% and things seem to start happening, but then the work stops for weeks and months so you're told 'pay the next instalment and we can get back on the job quicker and make you a priority'. "During this time, Frank is telling us his lads have let him down or this or that supplier has let him down.
So you believe him and then he's calling you up constantly for the next 24 hours asking for the payment and you send it. “Eventually, you're already in deep - paid 60% of the value of the job - you're locked into this nightmare. The house is in ruins and you've spent tens of thousands of pounds and you have to decide whether to write off all that money and live in an abandoned building site or believe Frank when he tells you another payment will ensure all the work gets done.
"So you believe him because you have to believe him because the alternative is disastrous. The alternative is losing a fortune and living in a derelict house.“ Julie said the failure of Celsius to meaningfully progress the project meant their home had no kitchen, bathroom or shower and they had no heating during the cold winter months in late 2024.
She said the house was left with no windows or doors at the back of the property so they were unable to leave the house unattended. Asked to describe the impact this has had on their lives, Julie said: "The aim of doing all this was to leave something for our kids and to have space for family to visit. That's all gone now.
"Our son is getting married later this year and we wanted to give him and his new family a bit of money to help them along the way. We can't do that either." Bob added: "Our plans and our home are all destroyed.
We’ve lost the future we'd worked so hard for. We've gone from planning our son's wedding to wondering where the hell we're gonna live. Our life is on hold.
Glenn and Diana Waite, both retired teachers, signed a contract with Celsius in July 2023. They paid 60% upfront, only for work to grind to a halt after what they described as a brief burst of activity. According to Diana, what followed over the course of the next 12 months was a series of unfulfilled promises and missed appointments leading the couple to send a letter of deadlock.
This was warning Celsius the contract would be terminated if the delays continued. This was 12 months after the initial contract was signed and nine months after the job should have been completed. Diana said: "The roof was unsafe and it looked like it had a bite taken out of it with holes and big gaps - we'd had to fill in gaps to stop the rain getting in.
” Glenn said: “When we finally terminated the contract, Frank chuckled at me over the phone. We felt like we’d been robbed, but worse because it was our life savings.” Families have reported Mr Deary to Merseyside and Lancashire Police, but were advised the cases fell below the criminal threshold and would be more appropriate for possible civil action.
Trading Standards departments in Liverpool, Sefton , Knowsley , and Lancashire have all received complaints about Mr Deary and Celsius. Knowsley Council confirmed it had received 46 complaints against Celsius and Clearmetric up to January 2025, a spokesperson added: "Due to the company ceasing to trade, the council was unable to rectify the issues for the consumers affected. “All complaints received during the period in which the companies were trading were considered for further investigation and potential criminal breaches of consumer protection legislation.
“In most cases, the complaints were made by consumers outside of Knowsley and identified as civil disputes, the combination of which meant that Knowsley Council was not in a position to take action in relation to each of these complaints." According to customers and documents seen by the ECHO , Mr Deary’s companies were providing quotes post-2022 with Celsius branding but were trading as Clearmetric Ltd. A winding-up order was made against Clearmetric Ltd in the Manchester District Registry on January 7 this year - more than three years after Celsius Home Improvements was dissolved in February 2022.
The Insolvency Service (TIS) are currently looking into the matter with a letter from Official Receiver Carol Megram to customers stating: "This office is dealing with the winding-up of the company. She said: “I am the liquidator of the company responsible for realising any assets and distributing any funds to creditors. Also, I am responsible for investigating the cause of the company's failure and its business, dealings and affairs.
" Furthermore, a letter seen by the ECHO has confirmed complaints made against Mr Deary's company to Sefton council have now been referred to the Regional Trading Standards Team. All three of the households mentioned in this report hold very little hope they will receive financial recompense from the insolvency process, and are very critical of the lack of regulation in place to protect customers looking to invest in home improvements. Nonetheless, they want to share their stories in the hope no one else will experience what they have gone through.
The ECHO has confirmed Mr Deary is the director of other active companies - such as Total Sustainable Living Ltd, TSL Prop Investments, and TSL Stock Ltd. Bob Doherty showed us an email from Mr Deary dated December 6, 2024, stating: "We will be undertaking the original contract and seeing this contract out under TSL prop investments Ltd." This was at the very last stages before Bob said they were forced to terminate their association with Mr Deary, but not before making one final batch of payments to TSL Prop Investments - amounting to £14,364 - after being promised their project would be completed.
After confirming payments were received by Frank Deary, Bob and Julie said they never saw any more work done on their home. One month later, Clearmetric Ltd was officially wound up at court..
