June 5, 2026 — 5:00amJames Sinclair Thomson is a busy man.The 35-year-old’s house relocation business is booming as people jump at the chance to snap up a “pre-loved” home transported to them on the back of a truck, with the added bonus of development plans, council approvals, renovations, additions, site earthworks and plumbing installation.James Sinclair Thomson from Perth House Relocators.However, Thomson is now being accused by a growing list of people who claim he has not honoured contracts, takes deposits without supplying them with a house, owes contractors pay for work, and hotels for accommodation and food.Aggrieved clients claim he owes dozens of people across the state as much as $4-6 million.But with Thomson still running his business, Perth House Relocators, and clients still allegedly heavily out of pocket, they are now banding together to take legal action as a group after being told by police their concerns were a civil matter.In a letter sent to this masthead after the allegations were put to him, Thomson categorically denied any intention to withhold rightful payments, and said his company was “committed to resolving all legitimate claims promptly and transparently”.“In regards to ongoing breaches of contracts [by clients], we could supply you with the breach notices for each claim/client which will spread transparency on the issue,” the letter read.Joshua Aylett is pursuing Thomson for more than $120,000. The mine services technician from Margaret River says he has been forced to sell his primary residence after paying Thomson for a house he allegedly never received.Aylett later found out the property had been demolished. After contacting Thomson, he claims the business owner took responsibility for the issue and offered him the option of what he told him were two comparable homes.“They were both flea pits,” Aylett said.James Sinclair Thomson.“Nothing like I already had plans drawn up for. The contract options are ‘like for like’, so I said cancel the contract and return my money.”Ten months on and Aylett still has no home.In response to questions from this masthead, Thomson said the house was destroyed illegally without his knowledge, and he was claiming on his insurance to pay Aylett back.But after being told by police it was a civil matter, and by a lawyer that the cost to reclaim his funds would be substantial, Aylett took matters into his own hands and confronted Thomson at a worksite in Bridgetown.That incident resulted in Thomson being arrested and charged with dangerous driving, no authority to drive, possessing a controlled weapon, endangering the life, health and safety of a person, and cause poison to be administered.Aylett alleged that Thomson tailgated him for 40 kilometres to Nannup, T-boned his car and pepper-sprayed him in the face.Thomson will face Bunbury Magistrates Court on those charges on June 9 and told this masthead he would fight the allegations.He claimed Aylett had instigated an online smear campaign against him that had damaged his business and his reputation.Further north in Muchea, Leanne Green, 64, has been waiting 18 months to move into the house she paid more than $70,000 for in 2024.She alleges she paid Thomson to transport the house from Jurien Bay to her property in Muchea, but it is still sitting in two halves on blocks of wood under a tarpaulin.Leanne Green’s house is still uninhabitable.Leanne GreenGreen engaged a lawyer and took civil action against Thomson last year. After Thomson failed to engage in the legal process, Green won a default judgment to the tune of $90,000.However, Green is still living in a caravan, her house isn’t finished, and she hasn’t seen a cent from Thomson.“He keeps saying, ‘I’ll have your house done, I’ll get it done’, and then he just never comes and does it,” Green said.James’ business delivering a house to Leanne Green in Muchea.Leanne GreenLeanne has made a formal complaint to Consumer Protection and told Thomson she wanted her money back and asked him to take the house away. She claims he refused.Thomson claimed the delay to finishing Green’s house was of her own doing after she didn’t have the appropriate planning permission.He said when he did go to complete the work, he and three workers were stung by her bees and had to leave without finishing.Thomson said Green “lost her time slot”, and he had to push back finalising the property, but had every intention of doing so.He told this masthead he was in the process of getting the default judgment against him “thrown out”, and claimed he was not served the legal papers properly.Leanne said the stress of the situation had caused her to become unwell.“Nobody’s listening to us,” she said.“I’m a nervous wreck, I’ve had to have counselling, I can’t sleep. It’s been a nightmare.”Green and Aylett are part of a WhatsApp group of Thomson’s aggrieved clients who have come together to share stories.In it, a WA equipment hire firm claims Thomson owes them $70,000 after he allegedly hired a forklift truck and didn’t return it.The owner of the company claimed he too received a default judgment against Thomson to collect the money owed after he did not respond to demand letters, but claims bailiffs attempted 12 times to enforce the judgment to no avail.Thomson told this masthead he never received the court paperwork, stating that it was not delivered to his address, and he only heard about the matter a month ago.He said he was in the process of taking his own legal action to get the judgment thrown out on the basis the paperwork was not served on him correctly and denies that he owes a debt.Others who have spoken to this masthead but asked to remain anonymous include tradesmen who worked for Thomson but claim they were never paid, including one electrician who claims Thomson owes him $14,000 for work across five jobs.Paul Tanner was hired by Thomson as a heavy vehicle pilot escort five times in March and April this year to help him transport houses around the South West.Tanner invoiced Thomson $3400 for the work as per their agreement, but despite chasing him up, claims he has never been paid.Thomson told this masthead he said he knew he owed some people money, but had struggled with funds since negative publicity about him spread online.Meanwhile, the Jurien Bay Hotel has blacklisted Thomson and commenced legal action, claiming he owes more than $2500 in unpaid bills.A warning the Jurien Bay Hotel has posted about James Thomson, who the hotel’s management claims owes thousands of dollars in unpaid bills. Thomson said he had requested an itemised bill from the hotel, and did not receive one, so has not paid the outstanding amount.Thomson told this masthead he asked the hotel for an itemised bill for tax purposes, which he didn’t receive, and so has refused to pay the outstanding amount.There are 30 people in the WhatsApp group who, collectively, claim they are owed a combined total of more than $6 million.When contacted by this masthead about the group’s claims, Thomson said his highly successful business had poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into communities up and down the state, and had thousands of happy clients in the four years it has been operating.Thomson said he had engaged his own lawyer to sue those who had allegedly made defamatory comments about him online, and said their complaints had turned into a witch hunt that had forced the closure of his social media and bank accounts after they were reported as dodgy.“There’s a couple of contractors that have been caught up in this who we do owe money to,” he said.“But we can’t pay them because the clients aren’t paying us. Our income stopped, or not stopped completely, but stopped to the point where I think we turned over [$5 million] or $4 million last year, and so that’s dramatically gone down in the last few months.“So there’s a couple of contractors caught up who we do owe the money to, and we are litigating that, and have told them what’s happening.”Thomson claimed he would be getting the default judgments against him set aside because he was not properly served the paperwork.He is also facing two charges of failing to comply with a direction and contravening the provisions of a planning scheme. He will appear before Midland Magistrates Court on those charges on June 19.A spokesperson for Main Roads WA said the department was aware of complaints regarding Thomson and that, following a review, his heavy vehicle accreditation had been removed.Both WA Police and Consumer Protection WA said they could not confirm whether an individual was under investigation.More:ScamsCourtsProperty pricesMargaret RiverPerthSalesWA residential propertyPoliceResidential propertyFrom our partners