2 October 2024
They say the best things in life are free, but this Victorian couple may not agree.
They say the best things in life are free, but this Victorian couple may not agree.
Kevin and Andrea Griffin were recently gifted a $4.25m house in Gisborne from Melbourne businessman Adrian Portelli.
The house, featured on the reality TV series The Block, was bought by Portelli in November last year before he decided to generously raffle it off as a prize through his business LMCT+.
The Griffins, who had been paying a $ 20-a-month membership to LMCT+ for just over 12 months, were the lucky winners from thousands of members.
A video then surfaced on the LMCT+ Instagram page which showed the couple’s ungrateful reaction upon being led through the house for the first time.
Snide comments such as, “where did me wine fridge go?” and “forgot to give that ceiling its final coat” can be heard from both Andrea and Kevin in the video.
Mr Griffin even went as far as saying, “I have got all this time now to be an asshole to whoever built this joint.”
Things then soured significantly from there.
Further videos emerged of Portelli describing his less-than-ideal experience with the Griffins, who accused him of stealing $100,000 worth of items from the house.
While Mr Portelli did indeed remove items from the home, the businessman stated that the items in question were not included in the terms and conditions of the giveaway.
“The Block contestants do receive many items from sponsors that aren’t included. So in the shed there were a lot of items like a treadmill, there was the wine that contestants won, there were toolboxes, etc,” he explained.
An entire itemised list was even sent to Portelli detailing everything that was taken, not to mention letters from lawyers and accusations of theft from the Griffins.
Portelli, however, has had the last laugh.
The LMCT+ founder decided to run a $1 raffle for all the items that were taken, with all the money going to helping homeless Australians.
Brilliant, brutal and generous all in equal measure, it seems revenge is a dish best served cold.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.