Akademik

n.

A roofing or painting company that calls on houses door-to-door and attempts to dupe homeowners into undergoing expensive and unnecessary repairs.

"Not being an old-age pensioner with failing eyesight and faltering pins, I had never before heard of ladder gangs. These people, I discovered, drive vans decorated with enough ladders to scale the taller bits of the coast of Normandy, and seek out gullible houseowners to persuade them of the need for vital roofing repairs."

— Pete Clark, "Builders who give cowboys a bad name," The Evening Standard, January 21, 2000