1 (RELAXED MUSIC) Tonight ` Gidday, Gordon. Or is it George? we're on the trail of a repeat offender. What are you doing with the money, Gordon? Shut up. Let's go! There's a reason this guy's in our hall of shame. Gordon! Some would say he puts the 'con' in concrete. Don't go there. He is a con artist, and there's something wrong with the man. Plus ` the Martin Jetpack. (HIGH-PITCHED WHIRRING) It's the Kiwi invention driving some neighbours mad. It's so amazingly loud. The wailing banshee across the road. And making the '70s look good... or not. (FUNKY MUSIC) We break out the flares and let the chest hair flow. All for a good cause, of course. # ...playin' in a rock 'n' roll band. Copyright Able 2017 Welcome to the show. Trust is a wonderful thing, but it can easily be misplaced and manipulated. Tonight, we are on the trail of a concrete contractor who has been abusing trust for 15 years. His name is Gordon Bayne; although, these days, he seems to prefer the name George. Matt takes up the chase. (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC) Gidday, Gordon. Or is it George? 'Catching up with an old friend of the show.' Why aren't you finishing jobs, George? 'An old dog who is up to his old tricks.' What are you doing with the money, Gordon? Shut up. Let's go. 'A dodgy concreter who takes money upfront but doesn't deliver,...' Let's go! '...leaving a trail of destruction.' Gordon. Advice for others in dealing with Gordon Bayne? Don't go there. Don't go there. He is a con artist, and there's something wrong with the man. Earlier this year, Jude Cottrell was considerably happier. She'd just moved back to her Manukau Harbour home ` the major drawcard this quintessential Kiwi view. I don't know if it gets any better than that, does it? No, it doesn't. I think it's pretty primo. She's been renovating. The latest project ` a concrete slab heading to the front door. It's a pleasure to be able to walk into our house and have beautiful clean concrete outside, Matt. Shame you had to pay for it twice. (LAUGHS) It is. Yes, sadly, this is take two. While the second concreters nailed it, the first contractors ` George's Auckland Wide Concrete ` took Jude's money, promised the Earth but delivered nothing but mudslides and migraines for two months. We had a huge pile of soil here that George's digger driver had dug up from here and plonked there. And then it rained just about every day, so the soil just sort of slowly slushed down the drive, and we had about a half-inch of mud and slurry all down the drive, so if anybody came, we had to whip out and get gumboots for them. We had a mudpile all the way here into the front door. Is it more painful thinking you were duped? It is, actually. I mean, in the history of the world, what I lost isn't a lot of money, but it's the feeling of being done in by a sleazebag that really gets to me. Yep. (CHUCKLES) Here's how the first deal went down. Back in May, Jude found Auckland Wide Concrete on the net. She soon called them up,... We're` We're out past Titirangi. ...and a bloke named George arrived almost before she was off the phone. He wanted, uh, to get the whole thing underway quickly so that would be helpful for us. George's quote for the slab ` $3000. His men could start prepping immediately. The concrete would arrive in just a couple of days, providing $2300 was paid upfront. Which was to secure the concrete truck coming that weekend. No paperwork? No paperwork. This was all verbal. (CHUCKLES) Why did you pay nearly 80% of the total cost before the job was done? I wish I hadn't, Matt. I wish I hadn't, but I was totally thinking that he had to pay that money in order to secure the concrete truck. The concrete truck, of course, never came, but the excuses did. 'Yes, yes. The concrete's coming on Saturday.' And then Saturday would come, and he wouldn't turn up. And ol' mate George was soon MIA. Jude reckons she would've called him 100 times in two months. He started not answering our phone calls, so I would get cheesed off, and I would redial, redial, redial, redial. And then we got to` if somebody came out here, we would say, 'Can we borrow your phone?' and we'd ring him on a number he wouldn't recognise, and he would pick up, and we'd go, 'Ha ha! George, we've got you! Now, don't hang up on us.' And? And he would then talk for a little bit, and then, bang ` he'd just hang up. Leaving that unfinished job and with an old septic tank air vent exposed ` a hideous smell. You could flush the toilet and have a look down this air vent and see whatever's in the toilet whizzing past, so the smell ` as well as the mud outside of the front of the door ` was shocking for about two and a half months. Wow. (CHUCKLES) With $2300 also down the drain, Jude would have to pay another $5000 to different tradies to get the job done ` and done properly. We employed, um, a friend of ours to come and redo the shonky boxing that he'd done and needed redigging out to a deeper layer and to put the rebar wire in and to re-set up the drain that needed to be there. While her gut told her she'd been conned by a pro, the internet ` which arguably got her in this mess ` confirmed it. There were reviews online ` exactly the same story as other people have experienced with this guy. Jude discovered George was Gordon Bayne,... Gordon, we've had a lot of complaints about you. ...a bankrupt whose dodgy dealings have been exposed on Fair Go three times, the first in 2006. Took us back to 2002, Gordon. You've been doing this for four years. (ENGINE STARTS) Let's make that 15. Gordon's even signed an affidavit with the programme saying he'll abstain from any future business practice. Gordon Bayne's clearly gone back on his word ` again. It's shonky. It's really shonky. So he underquotes to pull you in, and then you're left with a job that isn't done. So why isn't this long-time con man behind bars? We all understand the police are overworked. They've got thousands and thousands of complaints they've got to prioritise. Lawyer Catriona MacLennan says because some work is done, it's difficult for police to prove intent. Someone might say, 'Oh, I took the money. I got sick. I had a family bereavement. 'I couldn't finish the job, but I had no fraudulent intent when I took the money.' And so if there was just one case, that might be quite plausible. But if you've got 10 or 20 or 50 cases where money's been taken and no work or a small amount of work has been done, it's gonna start getting rather unbelievable. So we need to get a posse together? Yup, yeah. That's the key to it. Jude is just one of more than a dozen people we've spoken to in the last fortnight who say they've recently been conned by Auckland Wide Concrete and Gordon Bayne, the man who currently calls himself George. If we manage to catch up with Gordon Bayne, what would you like us to say to him? What would you like us to do? I would say to him, 'George, you can't keep living like this. 'This is atrocious. You're out of integrity with yourself and with everyone.' Jude is the only victim you'll see in this story. Others tell us they've been threatened by Gordon and are afraid to front. Her message for him ` If you would like to pay Jude back $2300, she'd love that. (MATT LAUGHS) We'll see what we can do. Yeah, good. Thank you. Yeah. But catching up with Gordon Bayne isn't easy. He might not work hard for his money, but he definitely gets up early. So, we've been following these guys for about 40 minutes, and I'm pretty sure they know what we're up to, because they're doing everything they can to lose us. 'We gave Gordon and his young gang far too much credit. 'Turns out, after tailing them for an hour, they would have no idea we were there.' Gidday, Gordon. Or is it George? What've you done with... Let's go. ...Jude Cottrell's money, Gordon? Let's go! Gordon? Why aren't you finishing these jobs? Leave my car alone. Why aren't you finishing these jobs, Gordon? Leave me alone. Don't hit me. Well, leave me alone! Get away from my car now! What are you doing with everyone's money? Get away from my car now. Jude Cottrell wants her money back, Gordon. Gordon, Jude Cottrell wants her money back. Well, I'll give it back. What are you do`? How you gonna`? Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. How much money are you gonna give her, Gordon? Gordon, why are you back concreting? You've got a contract with us saying you won't do this again, Gordon! Gordon! 'Clearly, our not-so-flash Gordon was in no mood for talking, so we'll leave the last word to Jude.' Whether she sees her money again or not, she's learnt some valuable lessons. One is look at the reviews online before you employ anyone. It was all there for everyone to see, and I guess the other learning I've had out of it is... don't pay anybody until they've done the job. Is it any surprise that we're looking for a rogue tradesman, and we found him at the bakery? (CHUCKLES) Oh! (CHUCKLES) We did finally catch up with Gordon Bayne, AKA George. He didn't want to have a sit-down chat with us, but he was happy to share his side of the story on the phone. Gordon, why are you still doing this? It's been 15 years, Gordon, that I know about. Are ya? But you've said that before. I would really like to see Jude Cottrell get her $2300 back. Will she get that money? Yeah, because we feel like we need to make the public aware of what you're doing again and again and again. OK, Gordon, come on. We would really love to never feature you on the show again. Yeah, you've had your TV time. Right, coming up after the break ` the quiet country life has been shattered by Kiwi ingenuity. It's proof that dreams really can become reality. It's the Martin Jetpack. The famous Kiwi innovation? Yes. But this Kiwi invention is proving a nightmare for some. (HIGH-PITCHED WHIRRING) It's so amazingly loud. And ` do you hate queues? If it's a really, really long line, I probably wouldn't even go there. They're a symbol of decency and democracy. But there's one thing more rage-inducing, and that's the queue-jumper. So annoying. Welcome back. The Martin Jetpack ` it is a wonderful example of Kiwi ingenuity and inventiveness. It's also the stuff of childhood dreams. I mean, who wouldn't wanna strap on a jetpack and check out the stratosphere? I'd be in for that. Yes. Well, it might be the stuff of childhood dreams, but it's also the stuff of neighbourly nightmares. Here's Garth. (PEACEFUL WOODWIND MUSIC) Canterbury heartland ` people shift here to prosper in peace,... (MOOS) (LOUD WHIRRING, WHINING) ...not for this racket, surely. It's so amazingly loud. (LOUD WHIRRING, WHINING) The wailing banshee across the road. (LOUD WHIRRING, WHINING) The source of this noise... It's the Martin Jetpack. The famous Kiwi innovation? Yes, the loudest sound I've ever heard. (JETPACK WHINES LOUDLY) After years of development, this remarkable flying machine was supposed to be in commercial production by now. Nearly two years ago, they began testing near the rural community of Oxford just out of Christchurch, 500m from Blair's new home. Come on. We hear tractors and harvesting equipment, and it's all just general background noise ` not much louder than what you currently hear. So we expected that. We get it, and we don't mind it. It's fine. He picked this spot with his wife to start a family. They thought they'd researched every possible nuisance. But when Louie arrived, so did the jetpack ` with no warning. It wasn't easy, actually, at all. Were they here first? We don't think so. None of the neighbours had heard them before, and we'd moved in. And about two or three weeks later, we heard this horrible screaming noise one weekend, and nobody knew what it was. (JETPACK WHINES LOUDLY ON RECORDING) We're listening to the worst home movie ever. This is, yeah, a day that I was working from home ` trying to work from home. Blair shot this a few months ago. It's constant and gets right inside your head. If you can go out for the day, that's a good thing. You can't just come in, shut the windows? It penetrates the whole house. It wasn't every day or even every month, but nor was it predictable. In bursts, yeah. So, it would go for about half an hour. And then it would, probably an hour later, go again. Martin Aircraft has told us in the past three months, it has run the engine here on three days for a total of three hours and 15 minutes. The family admits testing has been less frequent this year. But the crunch came a couple of weekends ago. They started just before 9 o'clock, I think it was, on Saturday morning. It's not continuous, no. It's not seven hours continuous, but it is a noise hanging over your head that you don't know when it's gonna turn on. In the next 15 minutes, there's gonna be a jetpack screaming. They and four other neighbours complained to noise control. One was 3.5km away, the council tells us. But it was all for naught. It's a flying thing. Noise control has no jurisdiction. Really? They can't do anything. That's right. The RMA covers noise from land or water, not from the air. Because it's off the ground, the aircraft is exempt, even though it's not technically or legally an aircraft yet. The CAA has given it a Certificate of Airworthiness, Experimental, and the certificates don't set prescribed noise limits. A Waimakariri District Council staffer told us... We asked Martin Aircraft's chief executive ` how loud is it? That's 100dB at source. That compares with a lawnmower, tractor or weed eater, and at 70dB to 80dB by the time it hits the neighbours, James West says it's 'well within safe limits'. In February, the company offered to meet neighbours but hasn't heard back from them. He also says it's hard to be specific about when they'll be making noise. He says in the past, they used the site for engine tests but from now on will only run manned flights there, and he's apologised to Sharlene for the Saturday test. Some would happily wave them goodbye, but there could be a compromise if they can just get the noise down to conversation level. Be innovative. I think it's fantastic. But, hey, let's, um... let's include these neighbours that are actually making it part of their lives as well. (MOTORS SLOW) The good news is the folks from the Martin Jetpack factory have done a Willy Wonka. Yes, Blair and Sharlene were given a gold ticket today to tour the factory and play with their flight simulator. Brilliant. But the real prize is they will now be getting text alerts whenever there is a test flight. And that offer is open to other concerned neighbours as well. And that is 101 on being a good person, a good business and a good neighbour. Coming up after the break ` ever wondered how much of our lives we waste in queues? Don't like them at all. There's only one thing worse than a queue, and that's a queue-jumper. So annoying. And we're bringing back the '70s. I reckon I make the decade look good, but (SIGHS) probably open to debate. # And everything around me, yeah... Welcome back. Queueing, or waiting in line, is an exercise in time-wasting. It's estimated we spend as much as a year of our lives stuck in queues, and I just can't stand them. Mm. They are a symbol of decency and fair play, but line etiquette can be a fragile thing. (GNARLS BARKLEY'S 'CRAZY') PIPPA: Whether you're behind the wheel... (HORNS HONK) We are not patient at all. ...or on foot,... I always look for the most efficient way, and it always ends up taking the longest. ...it's fair to say no one likes queueing. If it's a really, really long line, I probably wouldn't even go there. Yeah. (CHUCKLES) These drivers in China know what we're talking about. This isn't a car park. It's a traffic jam that spread over 35 lanes and lasted hours. Long lines and longer waits are rapidly becoming part of our daily grind, but what's worse than queueing? The answer? Queue-jumpers. What are your thoughts on queue-jumpers? They're annoying. Don't like them at all, very inconsiderate. Having someone push in in front of you. So annoying. Yeah, I` No patience whatsoever. In fact, I get quite` It's like, 'Excuse me.' Turns out we New Zealanders have a strong feeling of social justice, which helps explain why we despise queue-jumpers. But just how annoying do we find them? We set up a social experiment to find out, using our colleagues here at TVNZ as guinea pigs. So, we've sent out an email telling everyone we're doing a taste test and to pop along for a free sausage, because who doesn't love a free sausage? But what we really want to do is see how people react when someone breaks the social rules of queueing. Our friends at Breakfast have come on board to help us out. Emily, Andrew and Charlotte are our queue-jumpers. First up, Andrew cuts in line. And keep your eyes on these women. You'll see the lady dressed in black spot Andrew, turn to her friend in purple and whisper about him. The two then subtly but purposefully block him out, all without saying a word to our queue-jumper. Can I tell you a secret? Yeah. This is not a story about sausages. Oh, isn't it? This is a story about queue-jumpers. Oh. Cos I think I saw a queue-jumper. Well, you know, there's the natural instinct not to be rude, so I just thought, 'Oh, well,' you know, 'everyone's going to get a sausage. Just let him through.' A reaction that's pretty reflective of our experiment and of New Zealanders in general. And I thought, 'Will I say something?' cos we'd all been waiting for ages. But I think you do just chicken out. Confrontation, yeah. Time now for a bit of queue psychology 101. People are happier if the queue they're in is moving. That's why you'll often see quite elaborate waiting zones at theme parks. It's a trick they use on some of the rides here at Rainbow's End, where they know patience can run thin. Up to about 20 minutes, and then the tolerance level starts to wane, so we try to put in activities that'll keep people happy whilst they're waiting. Yep, that's right ` distract, distract, distract. So at Rainbows' End, it's the likes of these guys. (CHEERING) # Hey, macarena! # At the supermarket counter, it's having magazines to read, extra merchandise to look at, things to help you forget you're actually waiting. Even just filling out a form will make queueing seem a little less painful. People are more content to queue if they know how long they have to wait. And there is technology that we're looking at that other parks do use which show waiting times for queues. But the big one ` fairness. Oh yes. First in, first served. So, as we've already discovered, the majority of us hate queue-jumpers, but we're also strangely tolerant of them. Anything weird happen in the queue? No, I don't think so. You notice the queue-jumper? Oh, I did notice, yeah, but I'm pretty chill with that. Like, I'm OK with that. Ironically, less OK with it were our queue-jumpers. It's quite awkward. It's one thing to get into the line; it's another thing to stay there and hold your spot. Oh, it was very awkward. Like, something that was definitely out of my comfort zone. Did not enjoy it. They did, however, enjoy a whole lot of free sausages. Doesn't that just personify all that we're about as Kiwis? (CHUCKLES) Inwardly ` angry, annoyed. Really angry. Outwardly ` oh, so happy. Pleasant about it. A little bit miffed. Just internalising everything. We've got issues, New Zealand. Right, time to focus on this year's kids' ad awards. The mission is to take something from the '70s and make it cool again. Like me. No, not me. And to help you get the creative juices flowing, Pippa and I have put our dignity on the line for your entertainment. (WILD CHERRY'S 'PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC') # Hey! # Do it now. (FUNKY GUITAR MUSIC) # Yeah, hey! # Hey, once I was a funky singer... # playin' in a rock 'n' roll band. # I never had no problems, yeah,... # burnin' down one-night stands. I'd just like to remind New Zealand ` we don't choose those costumes. There are people behind the scenes, evil people, who do the choosing for us. You didn't seem to be in any hurry to get out of yours. Well, the stubbies seemed to fit quite well. So, kids, parents, teachers, get busy. The clock is ticking. Remember, the maximum duration for your ad is 30 seconds, and the deadline is Friday the 29th of September. It'll come around quickly. All entries are to be submitted online, so go to our website, tvnz.co.nz and search 'Fair Go' or go to our Facebook page. Now, thanks to Canon, there's over $22,000 worth of goodies up for grabs. All you have to do is sell us something from the '70s and just make it cool. Yes, good luck. So, that is the show, but we will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. Our programme is, of course, all about your problems, your gripes, your concerns. If you're having one of those, get in contact with us. Join us on Facebook. Or you can email us... Or write to us... That's our show. Until next week,... ...goodnight. Copyright Able 2017