A furious delivery driver blasted Dominic West today over an unpaid £125 bill for a lawnmower and revealed the actor had confessed he was in trouble because he ‘had an affair’.
Matt Vessey, 36, said he turned up on the 51-year-old star’s doorstep in Wiltshire with his van and trailer to find a gaggle of photographers waiting outside.
Having failed to recognise the actor, Mr Vessey told MailOnline: ‘I am like ‘What the hell is going on?’. He said: ‘It is a bit serious… I have had an affair.’
West, best known for his roles in The Wire and The Affair, has been the subject of intense scrutiny since he was spotted canoodling with 31-year-old Lily James in Rome last month.
Mr Vessey said: ‘I said to him ‘Mate, I haven’t got a clue who you are’. ‘All I had on my driver’s receipt was the name ‘Dominic’.’
Matt Vessey (in the pink t-shirt) blasted Dominic West today over an unpaid £125 bill for a lawnmower and revealed the actor had confessed he was in trouble because he ‘had an affair’
The 36-year-old said he turned up on the 51-year-old’s doorstep in Wiltshire with his van and trailer (above) to find a gaggle of photographers waiting outside
Having failed to recognise the actor, Mr Vessey (pictured with his daughter Poppy) told MailOnline: ‘I am like ‘What the hell is going on?’. He said: ‘It is a bit serious… I have had an affair’
West, best known for his roles in The Wire and The Affair, has been the subject of intense scrutiny since he was spotted canoodling with 31-year-old Lily James in Rome last month (above)
The driver, from Scunthorpe, had travelled 240 miles from Lincolnshire to Wiltshire to drop off the actor’s sit-on lawnmower which he had bought on eBay for £3,650.
Nine days on, the actor still hadn’t paid the £125 cost of delivery, despite repeated phone calls and text messages.
‘I very much doubt Dominic West is struggling for a couple of hundred quid,’ the driver told MailOnline.
The actor paid the £125 on Friday afternoon to Mr Vessey by bank transfer.
Mr Vessey said: ‘I’m glad that he’s paid it. That’s good of him He has taken nine days ,so it’s a bit tardy in the way it’s been dealt with.
‘But I suppose he would always have intended to pay and make it alright. But it should’ve been paid on delivery as that was the terms of the invoice I gave him.’
West and his wife Catherine Fitzgerald, who have four children, have presented a united front since the pictures of his time with Lily emerged.
But Mr Vessey decribed a jumpy West who apologised for all the attention as the mower was unloaded, before disappearing at one stage to put on a hat and a mask.
The driver, a father-of-two who runs his own company, was hired to drive up to Barrow-on-Humber to pick the used Kubota mower on Tuesday last week.
‘I loaded the mower and made my way down to Wiltshire. When I got there, I saw a load of cameras everywhere outside.
‘The guy who I only knew as Dominic apologised to me that I would probably be in the media.
The driver, from Scunthorpe, had travelled 240 miles from Lincolnshire to Wiltshire to drop off the actor’s sit-on lawnmower which he had bought online for £3,650. Nine days on, the actor still hasn’t paid the £125 cost of delivery, despite repeated phone calls and text messages
Mr Vessey decribed a jumpy West who apologised for all the attention, before disappearing at one stage to put on a hat and a mask (above)
‘I had to ask him who he was,’ the driver told MailOnline. ‘I said ‘Well, what you been in?’ and he said ‘The Wire’. ‘I Googled him and realised who he was. If he had said he’d been in the film ‘300’ or was a voice in ‘Finding Dory’, I might have realised’
‘I had to ask him who he was. I said ‘Well, what you been in?’ and he said ‘The Wire’.
‘I Googled him and realised who he was. If he had said he’d been in the Spartan film ‘300’ or was a voice in ‘Finding Dory’, I might have realised.’
Mr Vessey went on: ‘I said to him ‘What you been doing’ and he said ‘I am in the papers a little bit recently…haven’t you seen?’
‘I said ‘Nah mate I don’t really know who you are’.
‘He was stood on the back of the trailer and then he ran off into the garden and he came back wearing a hat and a mask.
‘Later on I rang my dad and he said there was an actor called Dominic who was in the news.’
Despite a prior agreement to pay on delivery, Mr Vessey and West agreed to settle the bill for the lawnmower delivery remotely.
‘He told me to email him, which I did. I have also Whatsapped him messages. I can see they have been read on my phone.
‘I have phoned him several times, but he hasn’t got back to me either by email or message.’
Despite a prior agreement to pay on delivery, Mr Vessey and West agreed to settle the bill for the lawnmower delivery remotely. ‘I have Whatsapped him messages. I can see they have been read on my phone (above). He hasn’t got back to me either by email or message.’
West and his wife Catherine Fitzgerald, who have four children, have presented a united front since the pictures of his time with Lily emerged
Mr Vessey, who started his business last March as the country went into lockdown, said: ‘We are only a small outfit. At the end of the day it is not on.
‘I need people to pay me to keep my business going.’
Mail Online has contacted West’s agent for comment.