A pair of fed-up South Australian concreters who tore up a client’s driveway over an alleged unpaid bill say they “don’t condone” such behaviour but were left with no choice.
Viral video showed police called to the scene in Clare, a small town about an hour-and-a-half north of Adelaide.
It was there Damian Hallett, 37, and business partner Jamie Sommerville, 39, from Clare Concreting were using a bulldozer and power tools to demolish their handiwork.
Reached by phone on Thursday, the tradies told news.com.au they were simply “hard-working Aussies” pushed to the limit.
“We don’t condone this sort of stuff, we’ve never done it before,” Mr Sommerville said.
“We knew it was going to come to a situation.”
According to Mr Sommerville, the job was for $13,500 and the homeowner had paid $10,000, but was refusing to pay the remainder.
“The main reason why it happened was he blatantly said to us he wasn’t going to pay,” he said.
Mr Hallett added, “There were no quality issues. He said there was a discrepancy in the invoices, he wasn’t sure what invoice was supposed to be paid when.”
Mr Sommerville said clients not paying happened “not too often” but last year a big company stiffed them out of $14,000.
“We’re still recovering from that,” he said. “We’re just hard-working Aussies. It’s a hard trade, concreting.”
He added that “the police were great, they were outstanding”.
“I couldn’t believe it myself,” he said.
In one video, the homeowner approaches Mr Hallett as he’s bulldozing and pleads with him to stop.
“I’m ripping the whole f**king lot out,” Mr Hallet tells him.
“It’s not going to help anybody,” the homeowner says.
“It’s not going to help me by leaving it here,” Mr Hallet replied.
“I don’t care, I’m pulling this out. At the end of the day you owe me $3500. I’m pulling this out, you’ve had your chances.”
The homeowner continues to argue.
“You said you’re not going to pay me the money,” Mr Hallet says. “If you’re going to pay me the money I’ll stop, if not I’m going to bulldoze now.”
He then resumes his bulldozing.
In another clip, a police officer can be heard asking Mr Hallet to “be reasonable” and talk to the owner.
“I’ve got messages to say a day ago you said you’ll pay,” Mr Hallet yells at the man.
“Now we can go over here and talk about it,” the officer says.
“You can go and talk to him,” Mr Hallet says. “I’m done talking to him. Why do I need to talk to him?”
A third video showed the homeowner again trying to reason with Mr Hallet.
“Get the f**k away from my Bobcat, I’m digging the driveway up,” the tradie says.
“Please, please — can I talk to you one second?” the homeowner says.
“F**k off,” Mr Hallet says.
“I’ve tried to bargain with you. If you’re going to pay the money talk to me, if not f**k off. I don’t care. I’ve never done this before in my life.”
The police officer then asks, “Hang on, how much do you owe him?”
“$3500,” Mr Hallet says.
“Well then you need to pay him $3500,” the officer says.
In a follow-up post on Instagram, Mr Hallet wrote in the caption, “In relation to this, we have been paid in full on the day. Thanks to South Australian police involvement.”
A SA Police spokeswoman told news.com.au “the matter was a civil dispute and SAPOL attended to ensure there was no breach of the peace occurring”.
“No offences had been committed by any persons and SAPOL did not get involved in the matter of payment between the parties,” she said.
The homeowner has been contacted for comment.