Not able to contact plumber - he has £3000

@Bernardo1 or a locksmith (esp 24hr kind) 💰💰💰

£3000 before he even took a spanner out his bag, are you mad? You'll never see him again.

Haven't said that, just handed over £250 for relatively simple toilet fix.

If your children can't be Airline pilots, Lawyers, Train drivers, plumbers are actually very good choice.

Definitely notify your bank - they will in turn flag this to his bank who will freeze his account whilst attempting to get your money back via an APP claim.

I've hired 25 different workmen in the past couple of years and literally none of them buys materials without a deposit. 25% is very reasonable.

@PromoJoJo but are you taking a "big male"' with you?
Why risk getting assaulted ?

If you know his name and address and have evidence that you paid him, you can take him to the small claims court. If he's legitimate then a letter threatening court action might be enough. If not they will order him to pay your money back, so if he has any money you should get it back eventually.

@Mrsgreen100 it's pretty antagonistic to turn up with a "big male" not just any male or your dad and would likely add fuel to the fire because the plumber already sounds like a stand up fella. It's also ridiculous to door knock him at all.
It's basically putting her and her 'big male" in danger so therefore silly "advice"

Because it will help you to feel safe
and look safe
oh and be safe
not something to to as a lone female, obviously

If you paid by card you may wish to contact your bank and request a charge-back if the plumber is in breach of their contract.

What about the " big male" then?
Why is he needed?

Not that at all… ffs just hi we where in the area desperately trying to get hold of you
wondering if u lost your phone etc,
it’s a crazy time of year for trades , worth a go
just in case ,

Ridiculous advice
Violence is really going to help in this situation?!

Go to his house!!
take big male with u

Hi there my advice would be if a tradesman asks for 3 grand up front before any work has even been done I'd be worried I'm a self employed handyman ,builder and I only take part payment at certain stages after work has been completed In stages and is agreed by customer to be good standard of work that way everyone is happy and no stress of chasing builders for money.i hope you get your issue resolved as soon as possible

How's that going to help ?
Knock knock.... Hiya can I have my three grand back?
No, they could be attacked for turning up, could be the wrong address

Dangerous and silly.
Anything could happen

This happened to me last Christmas as well, paid a 'deposit' - on the day he was supposed to start, he didn't turn up, after I called him multiple times, he said his tools had been stolen, stupidly, I believed him! Weeks went by with excuse after excuse about how he was waiting for his insurance etc
We decided to ask for our money back and he then decided he was going to turn up, he then proceeded to rip out our bathroom and ask us for more money!!
Again, I paid him extra to 'finish' the job but he disappeared and for an entire year, i've heard all sorts of excuses
in the end i've had to go via small claims court but whilst it's an easy process to do, it takes a long time and we're still £2k out of pocket
It's awful and I really hope you get it sorted, it's unbelievable how someone can do this and not care

What I mean is that if you are ripped off for large amounts of money, a substance or gambling addiction or probably both is often behind it. So by many of these tradespeople I mean the ones who scam people out of money rather than them as a whole. But it's an attractive way of working for those with substance abuse, lump sums cash in hand...
It's actually far more of a stretch to believe everyone who scams people does it with no money burning addiction behind it.
Being aware of this it can put you on guard against the possibility that they re-emerge ready to actually work for a bit.
It happens a lot more than you think if you can say this is a stretch - so be careful with your naivety.

Well that's a stretch!

I'd be going to the address.

Almost exactly this happened to me.

We sent a Letter of Intent threatening court action to his address, which he definitely received as he then phoned us to shout abuse.

But we never actually proceeded, because after phoning our bank (we'd paid by bank transfer) they amazingly refunded us the full amount! I'd try that!

Sometimes these tradesmen are cocaine addicts. So they sometimes do legit work but other times they convince someone to give them thousands and do disappearing acts having put it all up their noses. Can also explain if they reappear with a sob story to try and get more out of you for a small portion of the work...

Is this "friend" someone you know well or recently? ( Could they be involved?)
Google his address ? His company name & given name to see if you can find out anything more.
Facebook check him?
Checkatrade isn't a great as ppl think not all reviews are legit.
The bank /money back thing I think you need proper legal advice it's a confusing area as you " willingly" have him money
Fingers crossed for you