A MIDDLE-CLASS man paying cash for building work feels as if he has joined the Mafia, he has confessed.

With a clampdown on cash-in-hand work threatened, Tom Logan was flattered and thrilled when builder Roy Hobbs drew him into the criminal underworld in an audacious law-flouting guttering scam.

Logan said: “Roy told me he could do a discount for cash because there’s less paperwork, but we both knew that was nothing but a cover. It’s because he has nothing but contempt for the law, like in Goodfellas.

“The plan is for Roy to come over and fix our guttering that’s been leaking since last winter. Then Roy knocks off £50, I pay cash and no one needs to know anything about it.

“There’s no paper trail and the only victim is the government. If it all goes smoothly we might pull the same stunt again with patio doors.

“I hope this doesn’t end with me burning down my own shed for the insurance money. But I can’t go back now. No way I’m living the rest of my life as a schnook.”

Hobbs said: “It’s all going through the books, but say ‘cash-in-hand’ to these types and they think they’re getting a deal.”