A phony trader who defrauded a string of customers of more than $280,000 before destroying their homes with shoddy work will be deported from Australia.
Tevita Tiliti Ungounga convinced seven homeowners between 2020 and 2023 to hand over huge amounts of their life savings for work he either did poorly or left unfinished, despite never having a contractor’s license with NSW Fair Trading.
When customers became frustrated and confronted Ungounga about the status of the work and the delays, he pressured them for more money or threatened to walk away and leave the jobs unfinished.
The 57-year-old is originally from Hawaii, where he was prosecuted for tax evasion and building without a permit before arriving in Australia, reports The Parramatta Advertiser.
Ungounga pleaded guilty in Parramatta Local Court earlier this month to five counts of contract to carry out residential construction work without a permit, four counts of carrying out residential construction work without a permit, four counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and three cases of doing housing construction. working without insurance as prescribed.
Tevita Tiliti Ungounga pleaded guilty to a series of offenses in a Parramatta court, including carrying out construction work without a permit and obtaining financial advantage by deception
Some of the properties Ungounga worked on included houses in Carlingford, Earlwood and Liberty Grove in Sydney and Stanwell Park in Wollongong, where he demanded cash up front.
Court documents show he was paid $93,800 on the Stanwell Park property for construction work on a sandstone wall, carport and granny flat.
During the self-excavation work, Ungounga broke rainwater and sewer pipes and damaged sheets of fireproof material on the house, requiring another $10,000 to repair.
One time he took $6,000 cash for a concrete delivery that didn’t arrive, and another time he raised the price by $16,700 to upgrade to larger stones.
At another house on the same street, he took $13,500 from a woman to replace a pool deck and build a retaining wall for the driveway.
She paid extra because he had to travel to Canberra to buy materials, but when they arrived they had labels saying they were bought from a nearby Bunnings.
Wollongong resident Jo Wong paid Ungounga $120,000 for a retaining wall for her home which sits on a steep slope.
His unreliable work left her worried that her house would slide down the hill.
“At one point he starts threatening us: ‘If you don’t pay more, I won’t do this for you, I won’t clean up for you,’” she said. A current issue.
After a disagreement, he left work, but not before leaving a large boulder in her driveway.
Jo Wong paid Ungounga for building work on her property (pictured) and said she was worried the house would slide down the hill after he messed up a retaining wall
At a home in Liberty Grove, he left a woman $17,000 out of pocket after she botched her kitchen renovation.
“The quality of the work is of such poor quality that existing ”renovations” will have to be demolished by the (perpetrator), which will cost the victim more money,” the documents say.
The woman complained to NSW Fair Trading, who confirmed Ungounga was already on their radar after being fined tens of thousands of dollars and given community service in 2017 for shoddy construction work.
Ian O’Connor paid him almost $200,000 for the renovation work on his house, which was so poorly done that Mr O’Connor had to postpone his retirement and continue working so he could pay for its repairs.
Yet another client in Earlwood paid him $7,500 to have architect’s drawings done, which the architect later told them had cost only $770.
Ungounga recently set his sights on Tonga, launching a charity he said was aimed at helping the people of the Pacific country.
The charity’s website sold tickets to win a house in Tonga to be built by Ungounga.
He had previously commissioned drawings from an architect for a two-storey, seven-bedroom, six-bathroom house on the beach on Nuku’alofa Island in Tonga.
The raffle was stopped after other staff working for the charity were asked for comment by the media.
Ungounga remains in custody and will be sentenced on April 10.
Upon his release, he will be deported back to Hawaii.