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Disgruntled painter owed money daubs message on the side of pub he worked on

An angry painter and decorator who claims he is owed £500 for a job has got his revenge - by daubing a message on the side of the pub he worked on demanding he is paid.

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.

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 on the property in Bolsover, Derbyshire.

Painter and decorator, Dean Reeves 50, painted black graffiti on a house accusing the owner of not paying him, pictured in Bolsover in Derbyshire, January 17 2020.  SWLEgraffiti
Painter and decorator, Dean Reeves (pictured) claims builder Terry Turner paid him just £650 of the £1,150 agreed price for work on the house - but refused to pay the rest until Dean carried out additional work on the building (SWNS)

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, Derbs, 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.

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Dean said: "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.

Painter and decorator, Dean Reeves 50, painted black graffiti on a house accusing the owner of not paying him, pictured in Bolsover in Derbyshire, January 17 2020.  SWLEgraffiti
Painter and decorator, Dean Reeves 50, painted black graffiti on a house accusing the owner of not paying him, pictured in Bolsover in Derbyshire (SWNS)

"I went back on Tuesday 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.

The grafffiti reading  “Want your house painting? Don’t be like Terry, pay the bill! Now you will!” on a house on Welbeck Road,in Bolsover,  thought to have been painted in revenge by a person employed to paint the house who had not been paid for their work. January 17 2019. See SWNS story SWLEgraffiti.
The house on Welbeck Road, Bolsover, was daubed in black paint (SWNS)

He added: "I went back on tea time on Thursday (16 Jan) and did it off ladders. It was my first job back since Christmas, I have bills to pay and need to make money. It just got too much and I wanted to prove the point. I don't regret it and I'd do it again if I had to.

"I was never going to get paid, but I wanted to make sure he had to pay something to get it cleared off.”

When contacted for comment, Mr Turner has denied ripping Dean off and said he was going to pay in full once the work had been completed.

Painter and decorator, Dean Reeves 50, painted black graffiti on a house accusing the owner of not paying him, pictured in Bolsover in Derbyshire, January 17 2020.  SWLEgraffiti
The graffiti reads: "€œWant your house painting? Don't be like Terry, pay the bill! Now you will!" (SWNS)

Mr Turner said: "The bloke is a prat. He should have just done the work and he would have been paid in full. It’s standard.

"None of what he says is true. He wasn’t asked to do additional work, it was offset work by other jobs he was meant to do but didn’t.

"I’ve spoken to police now and they will be looking to arrest him. He’s going to be done for criminal damage.”

A Derbyshire police spokesman said: “We received a call this morning reporting that a property in Welbeck Road, Bolsover had had graffiti painted onto it.

“It appears to be a dispute between two parties and we will be getting in touch with those involved in due course.”