A Fair Go investigation has finally exposed the shonky work of Auckland tradesman Niel Shankar — a man who uses multiple aliases and boasts multiple high-end skills.
He offers services ranging from electrical work, tiling, heat pump installations and plumbing, and has left families with half-baked jobs and a costly mess, while taking thousands in payment.
Fair Go spoke with five families, including Mariam Ishak and Allaa Oraha, who paid Shankar $10,000 in cash to convert their garage into bedrooms for their older children.
The job was supposed to be completed within a month, but they say it dragged on for more than a year.
Their son Alden described the extent of the work as breaking some walls down, putting “some cheap board down, sanded the floors, put some tiles on the ground, left, just stuff around, didn't do much”.
The delays led to mould growing on the Gib board and insulation, and wires were left exposed.
Mariam and Allaa took the company Niel represented, All Trade Services NZ Limited, to the Disputes Tribunal and won their case, but didn’t get their money back.
“There was this one time my Dad and I ran into him at Bunnings Warehouse,” recalled Alden.
“He was just like, 'take me to court, take me to court', laughing at us.”
Niel advertised on Facebook using multiple names - he could be Rahul Shankar, Ram Gareeb, Sri Krisna, Tine Lizarondo or Ravi.
As well as All Trade Services NZ, Fair Go is aware of several other companies Niel advertises, including Alltrade Property Services NZ, Electrical Refrigeration Heat, Printhouse, Webcom and most recently, Greenbay Electric.
A check of the Companies Register shows that none of these businesses list the name Niel Shankar, instead, the names of other family members are used or those Fair Go was unable to verify, with no legitimate residential addresses provided.
Business owner Jordan Statham believes that’s how Niel has avoided accountability.
“He can put up his hands and say ‘no I'm just an employee of the company, I'm not part of it’."
Jordan runs The Conduction Company, an Auckland-based company using qualified electricians. He discovered that his company’s website was copied and repurposed for Niel’s latest endeavour, Greenbay Electric.
Jordan said when he confronted Niel about the duplication over the phone, “it was almost as if he felt entitled to steal the website and use it as his own as if it was public property”.
Niel Shankar is still actively advertising on Facebook, offering to do work Jordan doubts he's qualified to do.
“There are a few cowboys in our industry out there doing illegal electrical work and leaving people in the lurch.
For example, it's one thing to supply a heat pump, it’s another to install and connect it up. A lot of heat pump installers will install a heat pump and connect it to the electrical supply, but they won't have any practising licence”.
Jordan warned that if someone completed that work incorrectly “and there was to be a fault which causes a fire or property damage, you wouldn't be covered by insurance, so it's a decent problem”.
Fair Go contacted the Electrical Workers Registration Board and the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board. Both have no record of Niel Shankar or any of the other names Shankar has used.
When Fair Go put that to Niel Shankar, he told her to “get lost”. Niel later said that his mental health difficulties meant he couldn't answer Fair Go’s questions.
Fair Go often gets that response and Niel was still posting his ads on Facebook, so we asked for some supporting evidence – like a letter from a doctor. He told us to go away.
Later, when Fair Go tracked Niel down to a residential address, looking for answers on behalf of his clients, he told Fair Go to leave his property, yelling at her as she left and calling her a "f****** b****".
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