A young couple's dream home dramatically collapsed when the woman was eight months pregnant due to the negligence of their builders, a judge ruled.

New parents Edward Goldswain and Jacqueline Hale just had time to get out of their terraced home in Finchley, before it collapsed into dust.

The couple's basement extension had gone disastrously wrong because of their builders' "incompetence", Mr Justice Akenhead told the High Court.

The judge ordered AIMS Plumbing & Heating Limited to pay the couple almost £290,000 in damages for the destruction of their Edwardian home.

But the court heard AIMS is "believed to be insolvent", so the couple may well never see any of the money.

Describing it as "a sad case", the judge said the couple bought a lease of the ground floor of the property in Stanhope Avenue in 2011.

They needed more space for their growing family and decided to extend into the basement, with AIMS starting work in September 2012.

But disaster struck on November 24, 2012, after a heavy rain storm, said the judge.

Cracks that the couple had already noticed began to widen fast and they could actually hear the fabric of the house tearing apart.

The couple and the upstairs tenant, who had a baby, hastily evacuated the house and watched as it crumbled.

"Deeply shocked", Mr Goldswain and Miss Hale escaped with little more than the clothes they stood up in, the court heard.

They watched as the flank wall first ballooned outwards before collapsing in on itself. The house next door was also badly damaged.

Heavily pregnant Miss Hale went into premature labour due to the trauma, although her baby was happily delivered unharmed.

Barnet Borough Council took emergency steps to shore-up what remained of the building and it has remained derelict ever since.

Since the destruction of their home, the couple have led a nomadic existence, moving between temporary homes, but have now settled in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.

They suffered yet another blow when they discovered that the loss was not covered by their home insurance.

The couple's lawyers argued that AIMS was "completely out of its depth" and "not competent to do the job which it had been employed to do".

And the judge ruled: "The overwhelming probability is that AIMS failed to carry out their work with reasonable care and skill."

The firm had taken no effective steps to to prop up the flank wall or to lay a concrete floor slab that could have averted disaster, the court heard.

However, the judge said AIMS had "played no part" in the case and was believed to be insolvent.

The couple also sued engineering firm Beltec Limited, which designed the essential structure of the basement extension.

However, while expressing "the greatest sympathy" for the couple, the judge ruled that the company had not been negligent and bore no responsibility for the disaster.

AIMS was ordered to pay £287,754 damages - although the couple are likely to face an uphill struggle in getting hold of any of the money.