Queenslanders Jimmy and Tam Wilkins took home a record $1.06 million in prize money when they won The Block this year.
But now that large sum has been thrown into question.
On Tuesday, A Current Affair teased an explosive expose, into what they billed as the renovation show’s biggest scandal in its 16-year history.
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Addressing: On Tuesday, A Current Affair teased an explosive expose into what they billed as The Block’s biggest scandal in its 16-year history. Pictured: Scott Cam
The 2020 season’s monster auction day – which aired in November – saw all five luxury Brighton houses soaring more than $460,000 above reserve.
In a preview clip, ACA claimed the show faced a ‘bombshell no one saw coming when the cameras stopped rolling’.
An excerpt of an interview with host Scott Cam shows the affable host tell reporter Alison Piotrowski: ‘Stuff happens, and it’s happened to us… It’s about human nature, it’s about honestly. I suppose.’
Winners are grinners: Queenslanders Jimmy and Tam Wilkins (both pictured) won The Block this year, along with a record $1.06million in prize money
Drama! ACA claim the show faced a ‘bombshell no one saw coming when the cameras stopped rolling’, while host Scott Cam appeared uncomfortable when discussing the prize money
Alison then asked Scott ‘What happens with the prize money now?’, to which the Channel Nine star paused and shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.
When the show aired on Tuesday evening, it was revealed Jimmy and Tam have lost their $1million prize and have been forced to put their home back on the market after its buyer failed to pay up.
Cyber security specialist Emese Fajk, 28, was the mystery buyer who snapped up Jimmy and Tam’s winning property on The Block last month.
Ms Fajk presented receipts of bank transfers indicating the money for the home had gone through, but the large sum never reached Channel Nine’s bank accounts.
Oh no: When the show aired on Tuesday evening, it was revealed Jimmy and Tam have lost their $1million prize and have been forced to put their home back on the market after its buyer failed to pay up
The settlement period for the Brighton property, which fetched $4.256 million on auction day at a profit of $966,000, has now passed and the original contract is void.
The devastated Brisbane-based couple choked back tears as they told A Current Affair how they’d been left blindsided by the strange turn of events.
‘Here we are now not knowing what’s going to happen. It’s something no one ever saw coming, no one ever expected, but it’s something we now have to deal with,’ Jimmy said.
When confronted by Nine reporter Alison Piotrowski, she insisted she had paid the deposit for the property and had receipts to prove it.
Issues: Cyber security specialist Emese Fajk, 28, (centre) was the mystery buyer who snapped up Jimmy and Tam’s winning property on The Block last month. Ms Fajk presented receipts of bank transfers indicating the money for the home had gone through, but the large sum never reached Channel Nine’s bank accounts
‘I’m trying to find out what’s going on,’ she claimed.
She then took to social media to claim she had been ‘thrown under the bus’.
‘I didn’t get forms in time that I needed to sign, I had to find crucial information on my own, even though I paid someone else to make sure there are no hiccups,’ she wrote.
‘I still believe there is a happy ending here somewhere for everyone involved.’
Winners Jimmy and Tam’s renovated 1950s house at 360A New Street, Brighton, fetched $4.256 million on auction day, smashing its reserve of $3.29 million by a whopping $966,000.
The rookie renovators then jumped to a seven-figure sum, as an extra $100,000 in prize money was thrown in on top.
Repose: Ms Fajk, who was born in Hungary and spent time living in New York and London, insisted she has paid the money and said she still hopes to one day own the house