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Disgruntled painter takes revenge by daubing a message on an old pub

A disgruntled painter and decorator who claims he is owed £500 for his work has taken revenge - by daubing a message on the side of an old pub he had worked on.

Dean Reeves, 50, wrote in large black letters: "Want your house painting? Don't be like Terry, pay the bill! Now you will!" over the cream exterior he had painted.

Dean claims builder Terry Turner paid him just £650 of the £1,150 agreed price for the work, but refused to pay the rest until he had done additional work on the building.

He claims he worked through his lunch for a week to get the job done on time on the former North Star Club in Bolsover, Derbyshire, which is being converted into flats.

However, he says Mr Turner told him he wouldn't be getting paid the remainder of the cash until he "gave the back of the house another coat".

But the father-of-two says when he did what was asked, Mr Turner told him "you're not getting paid a penny until you've done the fascias" - which was not part of the original quote.

Painter
Painter

Disgruntled decorator Dean lavished the cream coloured rendered building with huge black paint encouraging other people not be "like Terry" and pay the bill.

Dean said: "I gave him a quote for the job and he said he would 'ping me the money straight away'.

"But he tried to change the job halfway through. The job was supposed to be done on scaffolding, he was supposed to have taken all the signs and guttering off.

"But I did the job off ladders, saving him £900 on scaffolding and I took all the signs off myself.

"He changed the job, kept asking me to extra work. He said there was a number of jobs I needed to do before I would get paid.

"I did seven days hard work on it. I didn't have lunch breaks, I worked hard all week to get it done.

"He kept saying, 'I'll pay you tomorrow', but tomorrow never came.

"I did the work and he said if I go back to give the back of the building another coat, he would pay me.

"I went back on Tuesday (14 Jan) and did that, but when I sent him a picture, he just said 'that looks better' with a smiling face.

"I asked him where my money was and he said I wasn't going to get a penny until I did the fascias, which we'd never agreed on."

Dean says he took the drastic action two days after being told he was not going to get the £500 he was owed.