Adrian Portelli hits back at claims he stripped $100K worth of goods from The Block house

Adrian Portelli has taken to social media to promote a new giveaway of more than $100,000 worth of items, which he was captured on CCTV removing from a Block house.

Lambo Guy Adrian Portelli says he will give away more than $100,000 worth of items that he and several others stripped from a house featured on last year’s season of The Block.

The Herald Sun this week revealed CCTV footage showing a group of men, including Mr Portelli, removing valuables from the Gisborne home, which he claims he bought for $4.25m.

The vision shows the group in March this year removing various items including up to $50,000 worth of wine, Smeg appliances, a robomower, meat smoker and a treadmill.

Competition winner Kevin Griffin, who won the house through Mr Portelli’s business LMCT+, uncovered the footage on the property’s security cameras after the keys were handed over.

But Mr Portelli, who earlier said he was being targeted over the matter due to “tall poppy syndrome”, took to social media on Monday evening to promote a giveaway of the “mystery home goods” through LMCT+.

The online giveaway did not state which of the items would be up for grabs.

“On a positive note, I’m going to give $100,000 to homeless people all across Australia,” he said in the clip shared to his 213,000 followers.

“Also we are going to give away all the Block stuff that we ‘took’ – for $1 dollar. And all that money, 100 percent, is going to homeless people as well.”

“I’m sure there’s a ton of homeless people at the moment that would die for a $4.25 million house and a roof over their heads. Let’s try help out as many people as possible.”

Adrian Portelli says he will giveaway more than $100,000 worth of goods which he allegedly stripped from a Block house. Picture: Instagram

Adrian Portelli took to social media on Monday to respond to claims he stripped more than $100,000 worth of goods from a Block house. Picture: Instagram

In a separate clip shared by the multi-millionaire, Mr Portelli could be seen walking through and inspecting what appeared to be the property.

“Just looking, just looking what’s around that I can take. So, everything that’s not hard finishing, that’s not bolted down – it’s not safe in my hands.”

Mr Portelli maintained he had been unjustly targeted over the matter and that the competition winners were “ungrateful”.

“I’ve lived in the US, I’ve been to other countries. It’s not like this at all. People support successful people. Here it’s just like, they want to shred bits off ya.

“It’s sad because it discourages people from wanting to be successful.”

Mr and Mrs Griffin, who uprooted from Ballarat to move into what was meant to be their “dream home”, said they were shocked when they discovered the footage.

“We were just like, what the hell?” Ms Griffin said.

“Why has he done this?”

The Griffins had been paying $20 a month membership to Mr Portelli’s lottery company for just over a year when they received news they had won.

The couple said they were led to believe everything in the house was included as part of their “life-changing” prize after seeing promotional videos for the competition.

Kevin Griffin, pictured with wife Andrea, won the Gisborne property through Adrian Portelli's business LMCT+. Picture: Jason Edwards

But Mr Portelli said he had the lawful right to remove the items from the property.

The Herald Sun can also ­reveal property records show Mr Portelli and his lottery company LMCT+ never actually owned the property, ­despite his public claim to have purchased it in November last year after it passed in at auction on The Block.

Instead, the title to the property passed directly from a Nine Entertainment subsidiary MicJoy Pty Ltd to the Griffins on March 10.

Mr Portelli said he transferred the property straight to the winners to avoid paying stamp duty twice.

It comes after the Sunday Herald Sun revealed LMCT+ was being investigated in Victoria and South Australia for breaching gambling laws.

LMCT+ operates as a “trade promotion”, a loosely regulated type of lottery originally designed to help businesses run giveaways in the hope of increasing sales.

Mr Portelli has denied his business operates outside the law.

Lambo guy Adrian Portelli is seen on CCTV inspecting and removing a meat smoker from the house.

Mr Griffin said it was a “life changing” moment when Mr Portelli rang him on January 29 this year to say he had won House Three from The Block in the giveaway.

“Adrian said ‘It’s your guardian angel’,” Mr Griffin said.

“I said, ‘I’ll be the judge of that.”

Mr Griffin’s wife, Andrea, said: “We cried, cuddled, we became emotional because it was just so good. At that time, it was just amazing. Incredible.”

“We had the family and friends around and we drank and we laughed and we cried.”

But Mrs Griffin said the couple “couldn’t believe it” when they later uncovered footage of Mr Portelli and a group of his mates removing valuables from the home.

Mr Portelli said in response last week that the details of the giveaway only stated the house was “fully furnished”.

“It is just ridiculous. We can’t control what was left in the house from the show,” he said.

“The house came fully furnished, can you imagine winning a $4.5 million house? We even paid the stamp duty, which would have been about $300,000. And then they say unless you give us $100,000 we will put up a website.

“It’s incredible. People are ungrateful.”

Adrian Portelli made his return to the set of The Block 2023 in recent weeks. Picture: Instagram / @adrian_portelli

Mr Portelli said the family was also offered $3 million in cash instead of the house, which he said he would have transferred immediately.

The Griffins were told the property settled on March 10, and documents from the registrar of Lands Titles showed the transfer was registered just after 11.20am that morning.

The couple said they were never received a contract of sale.

LMCT+ promoted the giveaway online in a slick video which promised that the property came with “$170,000 worth of Smeg appliances” and “$50,000 worth of wine”.

In a separate clip filmed inside the property and shared online to promote the draw, Mr Portelli declared “everything” was included with the prize.

“Everything is included, everything you see here,” he said.

Picking up a soap dispenser, Mr Portelli added: “Even this, you can have that as well.”

Portelli's mate, known as Sam, carries a robo mower that went missing from the Gisborne property.

But on the morning of settlement, Mr Portelli and a group of people arrived at the property to take away many of the valuables from the property.

Vision captured on the home security cameras show people arriving at the property shortly after 8.30am.

First to arrive at the property was Ray White Sunbury real estate agent Aaron Hill, who also appeared on The Block during auction night – the same night Portelli appeared.

Footage shows Mr Hill loading what appear to be bottles of wine into a car and taking a photo of one of the home security cameras on his mobile phone.

Moments earlier, Mr Hill made a call to an unknown party, asking whether they would still “need” the camera.

Mr Hill said last week when asked about the house: “We sold it to Adrian, that’s all we know. It’s up to him what he does with it.”

The footage also captured Mr Portelli loading wine and parts of a high-end sound system, into a luxury Mercedes G-Wagon.

Separately, Mr Portelli was caught on camera inspecting a meat smoker.

Seconds later his friend is heard on the vision saying: “We’ll take it”

Ray White real estate agent Aaron Hill was seen on CCTV removing items from the property.

That day, the group spent more thantwo hours going through the home and loading up their cars with valuables.

Some of the bulkier items — including a $5999 Husqvarna robomower and a $7500 Stratco work bench — were picked up the following day, on March 11, in a truck organised by one of Mr Portelli’s mates.

The footage shows one of Mr Portelli’s friends, who identified himself only as “Sam” booking a truck from the Gisborne property to Strathmore.

Mr Portelli owns property around the country, including two properties in Strathmore.

Other items missing from the home when the Griffins moved in were a $5000 treadmill, a wine fridge costing just over $5900, a Samsung Airdresser, and a range of SMEG appliances.

Two bookends in the shape of a horse’s head, taken from the property, appeared in one of Portelli’s videos filmed in his office at a later date.

A pair of horse head bookends, taken from the property, later appeared in one of Portelli's clips posted to social media (pictured left).

Mr Griffin said if he had known the property was going to be cleared of many of its valuables, he would have opted to take the alternative prize on offer in the giveaway — $3m cash.

“If I had a chance to look at the house, the property before I had to make the decision, I probably would have taken the money,” Mr Griffin said.

“If I’d known back then what I know now; all the headache and the heartache that’s gone with it.”

The couple told the Herald Sun they asked Mr Portelli about the missing wine while undertaking a tour of the property, which was filmed by Portelli’s team, during the handover on March 12.

In legal letters, obtained by the Herald Sun, the Griffins allege Mr Portelli told them Ankur and Sharon had “probably taken” the wine, which was originally one of the prizes for a challenge that featured in episode 15.

The couple said they were immediately suspicious, but were also busy taking notes of the home’s litany of construction defects.

Within a week of moving in, the Griffins hired lawyers to write to Mr Portelli raising their concerns about the house allegedly being stripped of more than $100,000 worth of items before they moved in, but could not afford to take the case to court.

Ankur Dogra and Sharon Johal renovated the house, which Portelli took the goods from. Picture: Channel 9.

Mr Portelli’s lawyer, Mark Stanarevic, told the Griffins that the terms of the competition meant that while furniture came with the house appliances were “considered optional and belong to the vendor”, despite Mr Portelli’s claim in the promotional video that the home came with “everything”.

“It is clear that our clients have not engaged in any theft or wrongdoing concerning the appliances in question,” Mr Stanarevic said in a March 16 letter to the Griffins.

The Griffins’ request for a copy of the competition’s terms and conditions, which Mr Portelli claimed allowed him to strip the property, went unanswered.

Mr Stanarevic warned the couple Mr Portelli might sue the couple if they ever went public.

Mrs Griffin said they decided to speak out to make sure Mr Portelli was “accountable for his actions and what he does”.

“The story is about making people aware of what can happen, what has happened to us, and stopping it from happening in the future,” she said.

A Nine spokesman said many details of the station’s dealings with Mr Portelli were the subject of confidentiality agreements.

The spokesman said Nine gave access to Mr Portelli and Mr Hill to the property on the morning of settlement “so they could hand over the keys to the winner”.