By Tate Papworth
An award-winning photographer and her young family have been left out of pocket $18,000 after a builder took their money and ran.
Jacinta Dal Ben commissioned the builder to create a dream studio in the backyard of her Hillside home earlier this year.
However Ms Dal Ben said her dream quickly descended into a nightmare.
“In early March this man quoted us about $40,000 for the job and asked for half of it up front,” she said.
“We paid him the money and shortly after that he sent a soil tester over.
“However, from that point on we never heard from him again and he stopped answering our calls and replying to messages.”
A family friend of the Dal Ben’s went to the business premises to confront the builder and found he had filed for bankruptcy.
Ms Dal Ben said they weren’t his first victims.
“He’s done this multiple times. This has left us completely out of pocket,” she said.
“We contacted police and they told us we’d have to pursue the money through civil channels.
“So we contacted a lawyer who had dealt with his victims before and they pretty much told us not to worry about it because the cost of dragging him through court would be more than anything we’d get back.”
Ms Dal Ben said the ordeal has left a big hole.
“If we were to build the studio now, it would have to be on a shoestring budget,” she said.
“We tried to get this money back through a claim at the bank, but that was also unsuccessful so we won’t see a cent.
“We actually had to refinance our house to get the initial deposit, which we still have to pay back and have nothing to show for it.”
