EXCLUSIVE: A MyLondon investigation has found cowboy builder John Pembridge-Hore left customers in the lurch for tens of thousands after quitting incomplete jobs; lied about building a Premier League footballer’s house in Surrey; and pretended to have an Oxford PhD in ‘Positive Psychology’
When Mark O’Donnell found a series of newspaper articles chronicling a rugby coach’s conviction for a ‘clumsy citizen’s arrest’ on a 15-year-old boy, he decided not to hold it against the builder vying for the job of extending his new house. “We read about him whacking a kid,” Mark told MyLondon, recalling the background checks he did before employing John Pembridge-Hore and his company Darwin Home Improvements back in October 2024.
“We looked at it and thought, everyone makes mistakes… We thought, okay that wasn’t great, and it was a bit naïve, but he’s a military guy and might have a short fuse on stuff. Used to enforcing.” According to the 2017 newspaper reports, after a knock-down-ginger prank on a £700,000 house in Twickenham in August 2016, Pembridge-Hore, dressed in full rugby kit, chased three boys and grabbed one by the scruff of the neck, angrily pinning him against a wall.
The boy banged his head, and a year later magistrates punished Pembridge-Hore with 120 hours community service. Sure, it was a conviction for violence against a child, but some readers could sympathise: “And what did the boy get?” one Daily Mail commenter asked.
It’s easy to see why Mark brushed over this. The news reports sketched Pembridge-Hore, now aged 61, as a former Irish Guardsman, rugby coach, sports psychologist, and college lecturer, with an Oxford PhD in Psychology. It appeared he was not only a man of old-school principle, but considerable talent too.
But now those claims of talent and experience are in question after a MyLondon investigation found misleading images at the heart of Pembridge-Hore’s business, holes in his colourful CV, and some very unhappy former customers.
Two clients say Pembridge-Hore left them in the lurch for tens of thousands of pounds after ripping their homes apart, while a contractor claims he is still owed £1,000 in labour costs. Pembridge-Hore had moved home and did not respond to our attempts to contact him via telephone and email addresses listed on his website and social media pages.
Pembridge-Hore’s company, Darwin Home Improvements Limited, dissolved without filing any accounts on July 1, 2025. Another of Pembridge-Hore’s companies, Darwin Home Improvements Ltd, dissolved in May 2023 after posting accounts with £1 at the bank.
‘I may have a PhD in Positive Psychology’
Pembridge-Hore first came to our attention when Peter Langenberg and his wife Ana made posts on Facebook groups in South West London in late June, asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of their builder who had stopped replying to their messages.
Peter told MyLondon the couple had just purchased a house in Isleworth and found recommendations for Pembridge-Hore and his company Darwin Home Improvements on Facebook.
“I talked to two other companies and his [price] was slightly lower but nothing out of the ordinary, and he could start earlier, which was good for us,” said Peter.
After agreeing a budget, Peter signed the contract and paid the first of six instalments on May 26, to cover building materials and the cost of hiring an engineer. Work began in early June, but almost immediately there were issues, said Peter.
In a long WhatsApp message on June 3, Pembridge-Hore claimed a ‘rude’ neighbour had demanded one of his contractors fix a hole in the fence for free.
Reassuring Peter and Ana he could sort it out, Pembridge-Hore said it was common for neighbours to bother builders for free work, but in future the neighbour should deal with the owners directly before speaking to his contractor.
“Manners don’t cost anything, I may have a PhD in Positive Psychology, but I don’t give or accept rudeness from anyone,” Pembridge-Hore added in a WhatsApp message.
Around a week later on June 9, Pembridge-Hore asked Peter and Ana about contacting Magnet Kitchens in Acton, so he could arrange for the measurements. A well-placed source at Magnet Kitchens told us Pembridge-Hore called them once to for an initial discussion about fitting a kitchen, but never called again.
Peter sent the second instalment on June 10, in line with the contract. Then at exactly 3:36am on June 11 Pembridge-Hore sent him a video and a photo showing him in a hospital gown with a canular needle in his arm. Genuinely worried about Pembridge-Hore’s health, Peter and Ana wished him the best and told him not to worry about any delays to the extension.
Two days later, on June 13, Pembridge-Hore said he was booked in for a 2pm angioplasty, sharing photos of wires and monitoring equipment, with surgical scars on his chest and leg. A doctor we spoke to confirmed the scars looked like the result of a heart bypass.
The same day, Pembridge-Hore said he was due for a triple heart bypass on June 18, and would be bedbound for at least another 10 days (taking him to June 28). Again, Peter and Ana wished him the best, only asking that he arrange for someone to take over the project while he was hospitalised.
But then things went quiet.
Peter made multiple calls and sent messages on June 16, 21, 23, and 30, and heard nothing back. After finally losing patience, Peter’s last message said: “Hi John. It is clear to us now that you scammed and never intended to complete the work as agreed in our contract.”
Peter reported everything to Action Fraud and the Met Police, who are still investigating.
A Met Police spokesperson said: “Detectives are investigating an allegation of fraud which took place in Twickenham in August. It is believed that a company received payment to carry out works on a residential property and failed to fulfil the terms of the contract. If anyone has any information relating to similar incidents within the area, please contact the Met via 101, quoting 01/7846388/25.”
Have you been a victim of John Pembridge-Hore? Email [email protected] or WhatsApp +447580255582
‘I have never heard of him’
For the first stage of our investigation, we looked into Pembridge-Hore’s colourful career and education claims, made on his LinkedIn, Facebook, and website www.darwinhomeimprovements.co.uk .
After leaving school in 1979, aged around 16, Pembridge-Hore’s LinkedIn says he served 11 years in the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, one of five British Army units known for their distinctive red and black uniforms and tall bearskin hats worn during royal duties.
Pembridge-Hore separately claims on his website and Facebook page that he served as an elite Royal Marine Commando, but gives little detail on when this was. One building client we spoke to said Pembridge-Hore told them he served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and showed them a scar on his leg where he claimed he was shot – the bullet entering and lodging near his heart so he required regular medical checks.
Through the Ministry of Defence (MoD), we asked the British Army and Royal Navy to verify Pembridge-Hore’s service record. Both refused to answer our question, citing data protection laws. Our Freedom of Information request was rejected for the same reason.
Pembridge-Hore also makes a number of claims about his academic background, listing a BASc in Psychology and PhD in Psychology from Oxford University, an MSc in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy from the University of Derby, and a BSc in Clinical Hypnotherapy and Psychology at St Mary’s University in Twickenham.
Oxford and Derby also refused to confirm whether Pembridge-Hore had studied at their universities, and rejected our FOI request on data protection grounds. We requested an internal review of all the FOI decisions.
Our challenge against Oxford was successful, and the university confirmed it had no record of Pembridge-Hore completing a PhD. We have asked the Information Commissioner’s Office to investigate the MoD and Derby’s internal reviews.
On a LinkedIn section where he describes being a Principal/Lecturer at the ‘Positive Sport and Mind Cognitive Therapy College’, Pembridge-Hore claimed he was using his position to accredit a BSc with King’s College London ‘that I have designed and written from assessment, to case studies to final written exams’.
The UK Register of Learning Providers has no record of Positive Sport and Mind Cognitive Therapy College, and the Department of Education confirmed the College is not on their internal records. A source at KCL’s psychology department also said they had never heard of Pembridge-Hore.
On LinkedIn, Pembridge-Hore also claims to be a high performance coach for St Mary’s University rugby team going back to 2016, so we asked the outgoing club president from the rugby union team whether this was true.
“I have never heard of him,” the Club President said, adding that Pembridge-Hore did not appear on a list of previous coaches, and is unknown to an older player who has been with the team since 2016.
We also asked the St Mary’s rugby league team, but their President had also never heard of Pembridge-Hore and said the team was self-coached before 2022.
‘The mystery deepens’
We also looked into the images Pembridge-Hore uses on his website and social media pages, which appear without any credit to their original sources, or in some cases purport to be his own work.
Using reverse image searches we established most of the photos could be traced back to other websites, apparently unconnected to Pembridge-Hore, going back to 2015. Another photo of a new kitchen, shared without credit or comment, first appeared in a press release from Masterclass Kitchens published by the Builders Merchants Journal in August 2019.
We traced another photo back to an extension designed by Paul Ambo of Ambo Architects, shared online by the company in October 2014. Mr Ambo confirmed neither he or his client had ever heard of Pembridge-Hore, but was intrigued by his ‘unimpeachable’-sounding double-barrelled surname. “The mystery deepens,” added Mr Ambo.
While Pembridge-Hore could claim some of the building work photos were hypothetical examples of what his company is capable of doing, we also found misleading captions and images on the Darwin Home Improvements Instagram page.
One image, captioned ‘Rear extension in Walton on Thames. We needed to build up the patio area due to a very steep slope’ actually belonged to Granit Architects from an extension in Merton.
James Munro, the lead architect on the project, told us: “I have never met or worked with John Pembridge-Hore, and to my mind he is using an image of our project without our consent, and in breach of the photographers licence.”
We traced another photo, captioned ‘Complete new build in Oxshott for a Premier league footballer’, to a £4.5million mansion in Bushey, Hertfordshire. A source at the construction company behind the renovation said he does not know Pembridge-Hore.
And the final photo we traced took us somewhere quite unexpected. “This was a basement and rear extension build in Notting Hill,” the Instagram account claimed. In fact, we discovered the real location was a house on Tory Row, a posh district of Cambridge, Massachusetts, some 3,260 miles away in America.
‘Stuff that looked builder-like‘
During trawls of Pembridge-Hore’s LinkedIn profile, one copy-paste comment kept appearing under posts by a law firm and recruitment company which seemed at odds with the evidence we were building. “WARNING!!!!!,” the comment began, before making a series of defamatory claims about two people named Mark and Mariken O’Donnell.
Pembridge-Hore appeared to be accusing another couple of exactly the sort of behaviour he had been accused of by Peter and Ana Langenberg. But when we tracked the O’Donnells down, Mark told a very different story.
Just like Peter and Ana, Mark, a New Zealander, found Pembridge-Hore online and was taken in by his credentials as a former soldier and rugby player. “He was available. Gave a good price,” remembered Mark, “But I suppose they always do.”
Looking back, Mark thinks Pembridge-Hore had enough skill to ‘do stuff that looked builder-like’, but alarm bells started ringing when he claims he never had any specialists like electricians or plumbers on site. “It sounds really silly in hindsight, but when you have done some [of the work], you have got to keep going a little bit, pulling out is really hard,” said Mark.
Then, Mark explained, things started getting strange.
“There was once early on. He didn’t turn up for a day or two. Said he had a cold. Then he gave a story. He showed me a scar on his chest, said he had been shot in the military, and goes for a regular check-up.
“Then he said he had driven down to do the work and not felt well, so he’d pulled over and fallen asleep for four hours in his car. I thought that was really weird.
“For me that was a good way of sucking up time and gathering sympathy, as you are not likely to kinda drag someone to do work if they’re not well. Especially as conversely he would go on about what great shape he is in, with kickboxing, he plays rugby league, a sort of action hero.
“I was always a bit sceptical as he always used to be unwell. He was a big guy. Some of it I think was bravado. I’m quite big as well, so I think he felt he had to assert he’s a strong guy.”
With the house all but ripped out, Mark claims one day in January this year Pembridge-Hore disappeared, leaving building equipment at the site, and messaged to say he would not return and they owed him money. When new builders arrived to finish the job, Mark claims they told him Pembridge-Hore’s work was either faulty or dangerous.
When Mark sent a demand letter claiming £16,000 from Pembridge-Hore for the unfinished work, both he and his wife Mariken started getting the defamatory posts on their company LinkedIn pages. “He was obviously trying to get on the front foot, to act like he was the victim,” said Mark.
Mark reported Pembridge-Hore’s disappearance as fraud, and the posts as harassment, to Surrey Police. The force confirmed they had received the allegations, but have treated it as a civil matter. With no other option, Mark used his legal nouse to file a claim against Pembridge-Hore in the local county court and invited MyLondon to attend.
‘If you’ve got a degree from Oxford University, you’re not going to be building loft of conversions in Feltham’
While new homeowners were left reeling over tens of thousands of pounds in unfinished work, the contractor paid to do the graft also claims he was left £1,000 out of pocket, with a girlfriend and two children to support at a time when they were hoping to move home.
Ryan Carling, 34, told MyLondon he first worked for Pembridge-Hore near Windsor Castle, when he was paid in full for stripping out plaster and digging pipe tunnels, but moved onto another site before the project was completed. Months later he says he got a message from his old boss asking if would help on Peter and Ana’s new home in Isleworth.
Ryan started the job, taking the house ‘back to first fixings’ so it could be extended and a new kitchen fitted. He got paid £100 for the first day, but barely a week into the job, he got the same photos and videos as Peter and Ana: of Pembridge-Hore in his hospital gown, covered in wires, and scars.
Then, just like with Peter and Ana, Pembridge-Hore went silent and his phone number died.
Ryan is from Bradford in Yorkshire, but his girlfriend Lisa Woolley, 41, grew up in South West London and her family know Pembridge-Hore as ‘John Darwin’ (not to be confused with the teacher who faked a canoeing death for an insurance pay-out in 2002).
Lisa told us Pembridge-Hore is a known builder with a good reputation, but she had never heard about his military service or academic achievements. “Why is he in a business like this, and if he’s this intelligent?,” Lisa told MyLondon, laughing over the phone, “If you’ve got a degree from Oxford University, you’re not going to be building loft of conversions in Feltham.”
They only realised something was up when Lisa found a photo of Ryan’s high-vis jacket, which had been posted on Facebook by Peter in a bid to warn other residents about Pembridge-Hore’s apparent disappearance.
Looking back, Ryan told us there was evidence of untoward behaviour when he noticed Pembridge-Hore’s project photos appeared to show things he and his small company were incapable of doing – something we highlighted with our reverse-image investigation.
“I’ve seen that straight away. He doesn’t do the entries with the glasswork like I’ve seen on his Facebook, there’s not a chance. The company and the people that he’s got, they aren’t doing that,” claimed Ryan.
Ryan also found it weird that Pembridge-Hore claimed to have ‘work coming out his ears’, running three to five projects at the same time, while hardly appearing on site. “It’s not normal. It’s not logical. You haven’t got the manpower to do it,” Ryan observed.
‘It was a bit of a hail Mary’
MyLondon waited for two hours outside Brentford County Court on August 26, but Pembridge-Hore never appeared. When the court list-caller read out Pembridge-Hore’s name in the waiting area, there was only our reporter, Mark, and his family.
It was a short hearing, but Mariken’s heart was racing throughout. Within seconds of sitting down, the judge suggested adjourning the hearing because Mark had not served notice of the hearing on Pembridge-Hore himself.
“I thought the court had done it, your honour,” Mark said, plainly surprised.
Agreeing to double check, the judge went behind to the administration office to ask court officials if a copy of the debt order had in fact been served on Pembridge-Hore. It was a tense minute, but eventually the judge came back smiling. “The notice has been served by the court officer,” he said.
Mark and Mariken sighed with relief. With no objection from Pembridge-Hore, the judge agreed £20,556 taken from Pembridge-Hore’s account by Natwest could be transferred back to Mark.
Mark thinks there’s something about Pembridge-Hore’s psyche that meant he kept all the money in one account. “It was a bit of a hail Mary,” Mark said after the hearing, explaining how he decided to file a debt claim back in March, “I did not think it would still be in his bank account, I thought he would have moved it somewhere else.”
In New Zealand, Mark says there is a natural faith in people to do the right thing. But that trust has been reset now. “It’s a bit sad isn’t it, being more wary of people,” added Mark.
Legal letters and bailiffs
As we went to press, Mark and Mariken had won their debt order, and Peter shared evidence he had been refunded tens-of-thousands of pounds by his bank. Mark has offered to help any other families who have been affected by Pembridge-Hore by sharing a template of his legal claim.
We attended Pembridge-Hore’s old address on Kneller Road in Twickenham, but the current tenant said he moved out in February, leaving behind a trail of legal letters (alleging non-payment of taxes) and visits from debt collectors and bailiffs.
We tried to contact Pembridge-Hore for a comment, but he did not respond. For now, it seems he has vanished.
Want to contact Callum about a story? Please email [email protected] or WhatsApp/Signal +447580255582
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