Biggest scandals to rock The Block
Tantrums make for good TV ratings but the real scandals happen when the cameras stop rolling. These are the biggest shocks to rock The Block.
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In the glitzy world of “reality” TV, where tantrums and tension keep the viewers coming back, everything is on the table.
But sometimes the most interesting storylines unfold when the tradies and TV crews finish. These are those stories.
DAVID BRANDI
The buyer of four properties renovated in various series of The Block found himself in legal hot water over a $135,000 GST fraud committed against the ATO more than a decade ago.
Last week, David Brandi, 48, a millionaire businessman and former accountant, avoided jail over the fraud, in which he falsely claimed a GST refund on two Melbourne developments in early 2010.
The maximum penalty on each charge is five years’ jail.
Brandi pleaded guilty to two charges of dishonestly obtaining a gain from the Commonwealth.
In the County Court last Friday, Brandi was sentenced to two years’ jail but that was suspended and he released immediately on a two-year good behaviour bond.
Brandi had already repaid the $135,000.
The high-flyer is a real estate investor who has bought four The Block properties in the past.
He bought Rod and Tania Walsh’s Richmond reno from the 2011 season for $922,000, paid $1.725 million for the Prahran group challenge apartment in the Glasshouse season in 2014, snapped up Dean and Shay Paine’s Blocktagon 2015 season-winning South Yarra apartment for $2.3 million and slung $2.305 million on Chris and Kim Elliott’s Port Melbourne Block reno in 2016.
He flipped the first three properties within a year or two of purchase for big profits.
PHIL RANKINE
The Block 2003 contestant-turned-concert promoter Phil Rankine walked free from an Adelaide court in July with charges relating to an alleged $5.5 million fraud dismissed.
But he still faces trouble, with creditors seeking more than $20 million from him.
Rankine and former wife Amity Dry placed last in the first season of The Block in 2003.
Dry parlayed her new-found fame into a shot at a musical career while Rankine worked on his music business interests.
The pair won the 2013 All Stars series before divorcing in 2018.
On Tuesday, July 27, South Australia’s chief magistrate, Judge Mary-Louise Hribal, denied a South Australia Police request for an extension so they could reinterview all witnesses in the case.
Rankine walked free, with Judge Hribal telling the Adelaide Magistrates’ Court police took too long to mount their case.
It was alleged Rankine duped investors out of $5.5 million in 2018 and 2019 by claiming falsely that he would bring Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas to the City of Churches.
Three of Rankine’s companies collapsed in 2019, with one creditors’ report estimating debts of more than $20 million owed to local and European financiers, former Adelaide Crow Mark Ricciuto, Ticketmaster and companies linked with William Abel-Smith, the great grandson of famed SA pastoralist Sir Sidney Kidman.
SUZI TAYLOR
It’s been a turbulent few years for Blocktagon 2015 contestant Suzi Taylor, including an on-set collapse, a public dispute with Geoffrey Edelsten, a brush with the law and a stint in prison before being found not guilty of charges relating to an alleged extortion.
Gold Coast friends Taylor and Voni Cosier came fifth out of five teams in the Blocktagon series.
Taylor, an estate agent, was exposed as a 1991 Australian Penthouse cover girl when, aged 19, she posed nude. The pics surfaced online in August 2015.
She and Voni became known for feisty clashes with other contestants.
Taylor was snapped topless on a boat at Docklands in November and, during filming that same month, ambulance crews found Taylor unconscious inside the Block apartment. She was treated in hospital, and in May 2016 told the Herald Sun she was addicted to the sleeping tablet Stilnox.
The following year, Taylor revealed an affair with Nine’s Richard Wilkins, then issued a frank denial to Edelsten’s claim he was “euphoric” that Taylor was his new love after parting with third wife Gabi Grecko.
In late 2019, Taylor and a 22-year-old man were accused of a range of offences over allegations they lured a male Tinder date to her Brisbane apartment, assaulted him and extorted money from him.
They were charged with offences including extortion, deprivation of liberty, assault occasioning bodily harm and possessing dangerous drugs, and were remanded.
Taylor was later bailed but was rearrested and remanded again in dramatic circumstances in March this year.
But Taylor and her co-accused were found not guilty by a jury on five charges relating to the alleged 2019 extortion.
Taylor was released from jail days later.
EMESE FAJK
The 2020 edition of The Block descended into chaos when the bidder on the winning property failed to pay up, jeopardising winners Jimmy and Tam Wilkins’ $966,000 profit.
The winning bidder was Emese Fajk, a 28-year-old self-described cyber security expert, who bid $4.256 million for the 1950s-style pad in New St, Brighton in November 2020.
Nine alleges that Fajk tried to dupe the network with receipts suggesting she had transferred money for the settlement of the sale.
Jimmy and Tam told A Current Affair they were left devastated by the botched sale.
It’s believed that just weeks ago, a family snapped up the home for around $4 million.
Fajk’s whereabouts are unknown.
DANI BACHA
In series two of The Block. Two contestants were forced to leave the series two weeks into the shoot when it was revealed one had done jail time for a drug offence.
Dani Bachia and wife Monique left the show when it was revealed that Dani served six months in prison in 2002 for being an accessory before the fact of manufacturing amphetamines.
LUKAS KAMAY
Just as it was within his grasp, the swanky Albert Park apartment designed by twins Alisa and Lysandra Fraser in the 2014 series of The Block was snatched away from disgraced banker Lukas Kamay.
The young former NAB broker bid $2.375 million through a rep for the apartment, paying a $500,000 deposit in April 2014.
The following month, Lukas Kamay, 26, was charged over a scheme in which he used confidential Australian Bureau of Statistics data supplied by a co-accused friend to make $7 million in profits by trading in fluctuations in the Australian dollar.
With settlement on the property not finalised, the show’s production company, Watercress Productions, withdrew the sale and the AFP seized the deposit. The apartment later sold for the same price to a local couple.
In March 2015, Kamay was sentenced to seven years and three months’ jail on charges including insider trading, money laundering, and identify theft. His co-accused was sentenced to three years and three months.
Kamay’s appeal against the sentence in November 2015 was dismissed.
He is now permanently banned from providing financial services in Australia.
DEA AND DARREN JOLLY
After their star turn on The Block in 2015, Dea and Darren Jolly found themselves in trouble with Boroondara Council over their knockdown rebuild of a home in Irymple Ave, Kew East.
Their company, DJJ Promotions, faced fines up to $180,000 because the Jollys failed to meet a permit requirement to keep the front facade intact. The company was placed on a two-year bond in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay costs.
The couple sold the property for $2.908 million in October 2016, $58,000 above their reserve. It sold again in February 2019 for $3.075 million.
WATERCRESS PRODUCTIONS
Years ago, Watercress Productions ditched Sydney for Melbourne — but the coming season of The Block may be the last in Victoria.
There are reports the iconic reno show might be heading to Byron Bay — home to celebrities from the Hemsworths to long-time Block host Shelley Craft.
Byron Bay locals aren’t impressed, and the loss of The Block to Melbourne is a huge blow to TV production in our town. Say it ain’t so!
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