A South Ayrshire gardening company has been causing headaches for North Ayrshire residents after a spate of allegedly bad jobs have left families unhappy with the standard of work and out of pocket.

Ayrshire Artigrass, based in Troon, have left four different families claiming they were left with poorly finished gardens and having to shell out further costs to repair the damage.

Steven and Shirley Terras, from Irvine, have recently won a small claims simple procedure against John Hoggans, who is connected to Artigrass.

Steven told the Herald: “Having hired John to remove a tree stump, the work was not completed and we had to hire a tree surgeon to complete the job, leaving us with only a partial refund.

“After terminating the contract, Mr Hoggans refused to deliver the stones that were paid for by us and were to be used to complete the garden’s transformation.

“It was the front garden and it was a right mess, I needed to fix it.

“After setting up a claim with Stirling Park, debt collectors tasked with retrieving the funds, we have still not received anything from Hoggans. We have received odd text messages from Hoggans.”

An additional three families have contacted the paper about Artigrass’s services. Mr Hoggans was approached for comment but did not wish to respond.

A spokesperson for North Ayrshire Council said: “We can confirm we have received four civil enquiries regarding this company from Advice Direct Scotland in recent months and we have provided information on how best to proceed.

“We would encourage anyone who has concerns regarding any trader to contact us for advice by emailing tradingstandards@north-ayrshire.gov.uk or calling our Contact Centre on 01294 310100.”