A crooked banker who stole cash from customers is at the centre of fresh claims that he is a kitchen conman.
Dayne Lynn narrowly avoided jail in 2019 after he dipped into two accounts in a bid to embezzle £75,000.
He admitted the charges but claimed at the time that he’d been targeted by criminals on the dark web, who’d supposedly coerced him to carry out the theft.
Lynn, from Saltcoats, Ayrshire, has now branched out into the fitted-kitchen business – but his latest ventures have sparked fury from customers who say they have lost cash deposits or had substandard work done. The Daily Record can reveal that Lynn, 27, has recently been involved with two kitchen and bathroom installation companies that went out of business, leaving customers out of pocket.
The Divine Kitchens Scotland Ltd company – of which Dayne Lynn was sole director – was compulsorily struck off the company register in December 2023.
Customers and contractors who worked with Lynn have claimed they were owed thousands for botched work or unpaid debts.
Lynn later took on work as a salesman with his dad Scott’s company, Fresh Bathrooms and Kitchens Ltd, which is now being wound up after many customers claimed they paid large sums for work that was not done.
Some disgusted clients paid several thousand pounds just weeks before the liquidation of the company commenced on September 13 – and don’t believe they will see a penny back.
Furious Kayleigh McKendrick and a host of others posted details on a Scotland’s Scammers Facebook page – detailing their disgust.
Kayleigh said: “Some of us have had work done at a terrible standard and in need of major repair. Some of us have paid deposits and received nothing.
“But there are tens of thousands of pounds taken by these people.”
Carin Hamilton, from Possilpark, Glasgow, paid £3,450 in cash to Dayne Lynn in July this year, for a job due to commence on September 13.
She said: “Dayne was the salesman for Fresh Kitchens and Bathrooms and said he was part of a family business that had been running for 25 years, which was just a lot of nonsense.
“I handed him an envelope with £3,450 in it – a 50% deposit – as he said I’d get a discount for cash.
“But I later got a letter from liquidators saying the company was being wound up. Since then I’ve heard nothing from Dayne Lynn or his dad Scott, so I assume I’ve lost my cash.
“I’m absolutely disgusted with the way they have treated people and I wouldn’t have touched them with a bargepole if I’d known Dayne’s history. He is a smooth talking scam artist and I trusted him.”
Andrea Miller, 49, from Irvine, authorised a £5,000 bank transfer to Fresh Bathrooms and Kitchens in June this year but the company went into a winding-up procedure before any work was carried out.
Andrea claims she was given repeated assurances by Scott Lynn that the kitchen would be fitted after she contacted him in September.
But she was notified by letter that the firm was being wound up shortly afterwards.
Andrea said: “My husband and I went round to speak to Scott but it was Dayne who answered the door.
“We were furious because it was him who’d come round to arrange the job in the first place and he was a real smooth talker. At this stage we didn’t know about his fraud conviction.
“Dayne said it was his dad we had to speak to but he had been avoiding our calls then giving wild excuses whenever we got to speak to him.
“My home was left like a bomb site because we’d removed all the units to get ready for the fitting.”
Alyson Gebbie won a £1,600 court claim in October last year against Dayne Lynn’s firm, Divine Kitchens Scotland Ltd, after her kitchen flooring was bungled. But he never paid a penny and the company was struck off within two months of the court ruling.
Alyson said: “The work was of a terrible standard, as he’d put the wrong grout on the floor, and he didn’t finish the job, so I had to pay other people to re-do it.
“I took out a small claim at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court and I won but I’ve still not received my money. I never will.”
She added: “I would never have touched him if I knew he had been in trouble before. I’d warn everyone else to steer well clear of him.”
One joiner who worked with Dayne Lynn also said he’s been “bumped” for cash.
He said: “The way the guy was working was a shambles. He was trying to use cash from one job to bankroll the next one, which meant people needing to pay up front, which is no way for any company to operate.
“I had a very nasty feeling that I wasn’t going to get paid and ended up £3,750 out of pocket.”
When Dayne Lynn appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2019 he claimed he fell prey to unknown individuals after becoming curious about the online underworld after watching a TV show.
Lynn claimed he was ordered to swindle from two accounts and transfer cash to a mystery crime gang.
He was given an 18-month community payback order at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
The banker, who worked in the fraud department, pled guilty to embezzling and attempting to embezzle a total of £74,600 from Timothy Evans and Stuart Bryce’s accounts, while acting with others.
Procurator fiscal depute Richard Hill said “The account details of Mr Evans and Mr Bryce were accessed during that time.
“The transfer was blocked by the banking system due to the total being above the permitted daily transfer allowance.”
Later that day another transfer was frozen because of suspected fraudulent activity.
Mr Hill added: “None of the transfers were authorised by the customers and were processed by Lynn accessing and falsely authorising the funds using his clearance as a bank employee to overcome the bank security measures.”
All money was reversed by the bank so neither men nor the bank suffered any financial loss.
The court was told that Lynn had since been sacked by the bank following an internal investigation.
Sheriff Martin Jones QC said: “There’s only one thing stopping him going to prison and that is that nobody lost any money.”
The sheriff gave Lynn a 240 hour community payback order. He was also placed under supervision and ordered to remain within his home between the hours of 8pm and 7am for six months.
Lynn, who was 22 at the time of his conviction, had claimed he’d become curious about the dark web. He supposedly joined an internet chat forum.
He claimed to have told mystery crooks that he was in the fraud team at Lloyds Bank at Glasgow’s Atlantic Quay.
A sheriff heard he was eventually ordered to swindle from two accounts and transfer cash to the supposed crime gang.
Lynn pled guilty to embezzling and attempting to embezzle a total of £74,600 from Timothy Evans and Stuart Bryce’s accounts on July 18, 2016.
Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond – Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
The Daily Record left a message for Scott and Dayne Lynn at their home in Irvine.
Scott Lynn said that he was gutted at the company being wound up, which had happened after a petition by an aggrieved customer.
He said: “I would love to say people will be repaid but the fact is that I’m penniless and I stand to lose my home out of this.
“My company has gone bust, end of story. The winding-up order was granted against me and it is not something I wanted to happen.
“People have all being calling us scammers and I’ve had others turn up at my home to threaten me. “
He added: “We did not take any money from people for work after the point we knew were being wound up in September.”