Luke Algar, of Crook, County Durham, England is the former director of Playskool Motorsport Ltd.
Responsible for running the company into the ground and leaving customers high and dry. Responsible for multiple failed customer project cars, overcharging, false charging and theft of components.
After completing work on a project car, the new owner found that the work was so poor, of such a low standard that they had to threaten court action in order to get recompense.
The original project owner left Westfields for good after the experience.
Having been supplied carbon panels and pre-molded sections for a Westfield build, Luke charged a further £2,200 in labour to 'make' them. At most, this involved trimming edges, yet the labour cost was for a week and half's work!
Having charged £3,300 in labour (not components, purely labour) for fitting oil and brake lines, Luke Algar didn't finish the job (both around 70% completed), with some of the lines actually fraying and falling apart before even being used.
The work was so poor, that every line needed to be pressure tested to check which were suitable for use.
Luke Algar charged £2,750 for 'drawings'. Drawings which were never provided despite being charged for and paid.
Luke Algar charged £900 to 'fit' bodywork to a Westfield. The bodywork was not fitted, it was simply laid onto the car for photos to be taken. No fixings, no nosecone fitment, no cycle wings - simply just placed on the car for staged photos.
Luke Algar actually took apart a pre-built steering wheel that was part of a customer build to cannibalise the quick-release boss to sell to another client. When he sent the company under, that component still had not been replaced.
As part of a build, specific components (e.g. anti-roll bars) were charged for, but when the build was released from the liquidators, those parts were not present despite having been charged for and paid in full.
What Playskool and Luke Algar told you to your face, never matched what was actually happening in the real world. While promising a car would be finished in a year and that is was being focussed and worked on, it turned out less than one day of work was done on it in an entire year.
Ex-employees of Playskool Motorsport have been left with outstanding monies owed, while Luke continued to run the company and take money from clients.
After carrying out a claimed 89 of hours work strengthening a Westfield chassis, two independent assessors viewed the work and both agreed that the work was so poor, the chassis could not be used. He had effectively turned a perfectly good chassis into scrap through his inept work and charged over £10,000 in total for the courtesy of doing so.
In discussions about the safety and liquidity of the business, Luke had stated that he pays no rent and so his outgoings were minimal and safe. Yet, when the business folded, a charge for £5,383.98 appeared on the books to be settled – to his father Nick Algar's rental company, along with another charge of £51,715.68 directly to his father..
The company was folded, with a little over £10,000 in (questionable) outstanding bills owed to it. However, on the books, they claimed £100,000 owed to themselves.
That figure included :-
£51,715.68 to Nick Algar.
£42,813.00 to Luke Algar.
£5,383.98 to Nick Algar's property company.
Less than a week before an agreed viewing of Luke’s work on a vehicle, he folded his company. This mean that the that his work could not be examined or contested.
After agreeing a ballpark figure for work on a car, Luke Algar completed less than 30% of the work and then demanded 4x the originally discussed amount for the completed car to be returned. When challenged, he threatened to increase the total further.
Four years into the build of a car (let’s just ignore the fact it took him four years to not even complete the car!) Luke Algar increased the agreed hourly rate over 150% without any notice. He just increased the amount and charged it. When challenged, he threatened to increase it further...
