Apprentices to rescue after cowboys strike

Date published: 05 September 2014


A team from Oldham College came to the rescue on TV after cowboy builders left an Oldham family high and dry.

Plumbing apprentice Sam Royal (19), from Chadderton, fellow student Ashley Walsh (18) and their tutors Tony Ganner and Craig Evans were drafted in to help when the home of Bushra and Sagid Rashid was left in a poor state by a builder.

The team of good guys helped Channel 5’s show “Cowboy Builders” to put right the problems left behind by a builder who had alredy take £16,500 from the couple for an extension and other works.

The couple had been left without heating, hot water or a kitchen - and the extension was structurally unsound.

Since the show Sam has become a local celebrity! “When I went to work the next day I was going in people’s house and they were saying they had seen me on TV and their neighbours had too,” he smiled.

“With it being in the Chronicle as well, loads of people have come up to me — everyone needs a few seconds of fame!”

Sam has since become a fully-qualified plumber and gas engineer.

Tony, the college’s course leader in plumbing and gas, said “You couldn’t help but be moved by the plight of this family and Sam and Ashley did a great job getting stuck into the work.”