Jack Targett choked back tears as amazing community generosity healed the wounds left by English shysters who fleeced him of $10,500.
The 73-year-old Pyes Pa man was still grieving the murder of his sister Mona Morris when he agreed to have the neighbourhood's rural right-of-way resealed.
The decision on March 9, in
which he thought he was doing everyone a good turn, backfired. He and his wife Dale were left holding a $10,500 bank overdraft for a woefully inadequate and unfinished job.
But neighbour Jackie Mace rallied the community and contractors to deliver an outcome that yesterday left Mr Targett completely overwhelmed and choking back tears.
The firm Fulton Hogan gave Mr Targett a big cash payout and worked with Tauranga Tarsealers and All About Construction to fix the driveway for a cheap price.
The donation meant Mr Targett's 65-year-old wife would not be forced to work in kiwifruit packhouses to repay the debt.
"It is absolutely amazing - we were blown away," Mrs Targett said yesterday. Their trust and faith had been restored after having the rug pulled from underneath them by the scammers, she said.
"We were on our backsides and didn't know how to get up."
Mrs Mace said the result meant the Targetts could put the whole dreadful business behind them.
Fulton Hogan regional manager Keith Campbell said the company stepped in because it was the right thing to do and because the reputation of small contractors had been tarnished by the scam.
"We felt Jack deserved better than this. Most people like to be treated the way they treat others."
Mr Campbell said the industry needed to close ranks against shysters. It was in everyone's interests to make it plain that such a sub-standard job was not the way to do business.
Mrs Targett would not disclose the donation amount but it was understood to be more than $7500.
The other five families living along the right-of-way at the end of Dekker Rd shared the $12,000 cost of tarsealing the rest of the driveway - discounted from $15 a square metre to $10 a square metre.
When the section of the driveway that was laid by the shysters breaks up - it was not expected to last the winter - the Targetts will pitch in with the rest to get it resealed.
The scammers' whereabouts are still unknown.
