Crooked businessman Samuel Wayne Baligac ordered to pay $600,000 for fleecing 11 customers

A CROOKED businessman has been ordered to pay more than half-a-million dollars in fines and damages after taking money to provide demountable buildings — and failing to deliver. SEE WHERE THE VICTIMS WERE TARGETED.

A DODGY business operator who scammed customers across the state should be forced to pay more than the court-ordered $600,000 in fines and damages, according to one of his victims.

Samuel Wayne Baligac, operating under the name Balco Transportable, took excessive deposits from 11 customers for demountable buildings which were never provided.

Many of the buildings were to be used as a domestic structures, which Baligac did not have the licence to provide.

He targeted customers from across the state including the Eyre Peninsula, Upper South East and the Mid North.

Tumby Bay resident Lisa Law said she first became suspicious when Baligac started asking for “progress payments” but made excuses when it came time for delivery of a demountable building she and her husband ordered in October, 2016.

“We found him through an internet search, we bought a very small house and we wanted to add an extra room onto the side,” Ms Law said.

“We approached him and found him to be very personable, he seemed very knowledgeable and pleasant.

WHERE THE VICTIMS WERE TARGETED

“We had to pay $6000 deposit at the time, but he also told us there would be progress payments and he would let us know when they were due.

“He would call and say that the floor was done, it was time for a payment and the next thing would be that the windows were going in so he would need more money.

“Around that stage things got very curious. He kept making excuses about why he couldn’t show us any photos or give us more information.”

But as the delivery date approached there was no sign of the house extension.

“Once our delivery date came and went I tried to call him a couple of times and sent him a few messages,” Ms Law said.

“Then I received a text message from a supposed friend of his telling me to back off.

“The message said he wasn’t very well and I was hassling him. That was when I realised there was something very peculiar going on.”

A demountable building similar to that offered to customers of Samuel Baligac who ripped off 11 customers of more than $200,000. Picture: Stewart McLean

Ms Law said she did not know where to turn after giving Baligac thousands of dollars but was advised to contact the Consumer and Business Services by her local Member of Parliament, Peter Treloar.

Since the middle of 2017 she has been fighting alongside 10 other customers who were left high and dry for compensation from Baligac.

But Baligac’s victims quickly discovered they wouldn’t be getting all of their money back at once as the dodgy builder contends with more than $600,000 in fines.

“I reckon it’s ging to take a long while,” Ms Law said.

“It’s not enough of a fine, not for all the people that he ripped off and some of them were really badly effected.

“He was very clever he targeted people who were further out.”

“He only went after people who weren’t going to be popping in regularly to see him.”

One of Baligac’s customers had ordered a demountable for a terminally ill relative, paying more than $32,000 for the structure which was never delivered.

In early June the Adelaide Magistrates Court heard Baligac had scammed $218,656.90, between July 2015 and February 2017, from customers all over the state.

Magistrate Ian White disqualified Baligac from managing any corporations and fined him $400,000 in addition to the compensation he was ordered to pay.