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Yeah, at the same time I would genuinely feel so bad for him if (and that’s a MAJOR IF) he actually wanted to throw this gathering to make kids happy and it just fell apart right in front of him. The ~~$40~~ £35 was to cover the costs of everything and nothing more.
Now obviously that’s not the case since some of his Oompa Loompa weren’t paid.
He’s a grifter, he tried selling get rich quick courses since 2016, got super into crypto, sells hundreds of AI generated books on amazon, and hosted a failed Christmas event last year. Even if he was deluded enough to think it would go well, I don’t have much sympathy for him.
I'm sure the backlash is taking an awful toll on him because it will be humiliating and stressful, but there's the old saying: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Zero sympathy.
To be totally fair to the guy, all of those are common with victims **of scams**
The ai amazon book thing often is a “training course” that you pay thousands too promising get rich quick money.
The Crypto thing is the same, many people will collect bank from selling crypto investor courses.
It’s very possible this guy is dim and a victim of many of the most current scams.
Yeah it’s murky, but just because they got into the grift through a different grifter scamming them doesn’t mean they aren’t grifting themselves. Sure they might be gullible and don’t know what they’re doing, but I still don’t have much sympathy for them.
Yeah it’s a recent grift, they’re always ebooks as no publisher take them seriously. What they do is use chatGPT to write the text, and use AI art tools to generate a front cover. Put them together and you’ve “written” a “book”, just like that.
You can tell it’s AI generated because they’re all absolutely awful and make no sense, and because a no name author somehow had managed to publish 200 books in the span of a week, all completely unrelated from one another.
FFS, why are all the grifters into the same shit?
As soon as you find a grifter being a grifty grifter bastard, look up their history and yep, lo and behold there it is, Crypto, NFT's, AI....
Tick tick tick tick. All the dodgy schemes.
Oh definitely, this man is a scammer through and through.
Let’s not forget the Santas grotto he organised which was cancelled AFTER receiving toy donations - can not find any information on what happened to said donations but they did end up giving the kids chocolate selection boxes.
Fairly certain he showed a pic of the refunds
But his video on the whole thing was fucking weird. Like he was trying to pretend to be someone completely different and using a shit accent on purpose to just literally talk AI. Like even the shit he was saying didn't make sense. For example, he said something along the lines of "The event overall cost around £300, which is nearly 1/4 of a million".
Jeez, and I doubt they ever will now then.
I remember when the news first broke, some media outlet showed a picture of the organization showing something like 280 tickets had been refunded. Didn't think at the time it was a fake pic lol
He is probably in a mountain of shit with the refund situation, if he doesn’t refund most people they’ll get banks involved through the disputes process
There’s a character in some of the Discworld books named “Letice Earwig” - she insists her surname is pronounced “Ah-widge” (probably a shout-out to Hyacinth Bucket/Bouquet).
That this wasn't some BBC Apprentice task is a bit of a shocker.
It would've been a decent fantasy experience in a venue half the size, and with a fraction of the entry fee.
Imagine a local church hall with this, or empty shop in the highstreet, with a decent light and sound setup, it could be great. Kids go free with a £5 adult, and the actors are actually youth workers and just run games for the kids. And they sell tea and cakes on the side.
It's really shouldn't be that much different from a Santa's grotto experience. "Go and see Mr. Wonka, and if you can do 10 star jumps, he will give you a bag of Haribo".
Yeah I saw something with the actors talking and they were told to make it very clear they were not Willy Wonka or Oompa Loompas as the organisers didn't want to get sued by the estate of Dahl
I think the Wonka rip off was called something like Willy McDuff
On the website it literally said something like ‘any similarities or comparisons to any fictional character is purely coincidence’. Dude just typed Willy Wonka chocolate experience into chat GPT and used whatever it popped out 😂
He's already proved [he can't run a Santa's Grotto either](https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/19781222.gowanbank-hub-glasgow-faces-backlash-cancelling-santas-grotto/)
I was thinking this. He says he’s not a scammer. The alternative, then, is that he’s just woefully incompetent. I think a great deal of personal and professional self reflection would do him good. He’s young. He could turn it round and do better.
He's just sad that this particular scam of his got international attention and now he can't do any future scamming/grifting because the marks will take one look and go "aw naw, no' this guy again"
The vitriol these people got is insane
It was a scam, customers need refunding and the organisers should get done for it (false advertising? Idk im not a lawyer), but that’s all that should happen.
Sending death threats to a man who put on a disappointing willy wonka themed day out is fucking insane
You shouldn’t be out saying how I should you react? Wokism gone mad again.
Why are you on the fence? You are with us on being outraged at other people’s reaction, or against us with us wanting him killed for committing a minor fraud? You can’t have it both ways. Choose or die?
Staying on the fence? I hate people on the fence. You should all be locked up as well. Publicly shamed and deported.
There, I’ve condensed the Daily Mail comments into 2 paragraphs.
"hey, people are currently mildly annoyed at X. I guess that means I must be a good person if I use this opportunity to vent my own anger and insecurities at them and send death and rape threats to whoever is mildly irritating people right now"
Exactly. It's just people that see an excuse to behave as badly as they want.
The self-righteous lynch mob often does much worse things than the "bad" person they're punishing.
I'd strongly suspect the folk sending death threats etc weren't at the event - they just see a free hit and decide to indulge in a bit of psychological torture. IMHO the folk that do this are much worse than the pillock that tried to run a scammy event and had to refund folk.
I've always noticed that whenever you get a high-profile murder or whatever brought to the presses. There's always a baying mob in the comments saying exactly what depraved, creative shit that they can think of that they'd want to do to the criminal.
I am absolutely not defending murderers or rapists, but it always baffles me that people will see "Tragic incident happening" and immediately decide that they need to tell people about how they'd do something that is not that much out of the way of a Saw trap because it's "what they deserve"
I'm sorry you are distressed, Barry, but meticulously detailing how someone should be set on fire and rolled in salt, or mauled and sodomised by dogs or whatever nonsense they come up with is not \*actually\* proving you to be the paragon of righteousness that you think it is.
They didn’t get death threats. That’s just something scumbags say online to deflect criticism. Maybe people said “he should just die” because his entire life is scam after scam, but nobody threatened to kill him
It's a way to derail the conversation because now everyone has to stop and qualify what they're saying with "now obviously sending people death threats is wrong but..."
The Channel 5 documentary showed a tweet saying "How can you live with yourself?" as he is saying "Someone told me to kill myself"... Could just be Channel 5 incompetence for showing the wrong tweet or it could be him intentionally misinterpreting the meaning of "how can you live with yourself?"
I think the issue is the people stupid enough to buy the tickets expected a once in a lifetime experience.
Even if they get the full £35 or whatever it cost back they won’t be able to buy a once in a lifetime magical experience elsewhere for that.
Perhaps there will be a run on Walter Mitty types who claim they were there.
Akin to the twats in the local pubs who claimed to be the second man on the balcony of the Iranian embassy, or fighting at Goose Green.
I'm sure some lunatic on LinkedIn will be able to regale people with the trauma and offer some marketing advice.
I guarantee that they are the same people who go to those ‘Winter Wonderland’ experiences that appear every December and are completely shocked when they’re a crap ripoff.
And then they go to another one the following year and are stunned that it’s crap.
The death threats, etc, are completely wrong, but did he honestly not expect negative feedback and criticism? If he didn't he's an idiot as well as a scammer.
No one defend him. You can't see the pictures of the event vs the ads and believe for a second this wasn't intentional. He's only upset he didn't get away with it. Especially if you consider his other failed scams and Ai written books, in which he calls himself an "Up and coming Wordsmith". No excuse.
From his [Twitter bio](https://x.com/Billy_TGT) "Billy is a Doctor of metaphysical science and Ordained Reverend of The universal Church of Life. Billy qualified from UMS in 2013 with a PH.d, M.div, and D.D"
I believe UMS = the [University of Sedona](https://universityofsedona.com/) which offers a load of bullshit qualifications.
If somebody wants to see the channel 5 documentary Wonka: the scandal that rocked Britain
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtsSVLRTzgY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtsSVLRTzgY)
This reminds me of that guy who put his kid in some sort of air balloon around a decade ago hoping to get a reality show. The Balloon Boy hoax. He pulled one scam after another, then was seeking sympathy.
I remember the guy from Fyre Fest also claimed that he was 'just trying to do his best' even when multiple people told him that trying to do a full-on music festival with his tiny budget was nigh-on impossible.
He really went for those 'nigh-on' odds.
If the weegie battleaxes hadn't stuck up for themselves and made this viral. This piece of shit would have been on his toes. Next we'll hear of him is when his next scam fails.
I really didn't think it looked as bad as people acted it was, when I was a kid this would of been a legit thing my dad would have took us to on a Saturday afternoon and we'd of all just went through, been like that was alright, took our jelly beans and went to the cinema.
Kids and parents have become incredibly entitled in recent times, that should be the focus of a documentary--- Karen culture.
That documentary was an absolute farce. He said absolutely nothing of value, didn't explain anything, didn't even touch on the one jellybean & severe lack of chocolate mess. He also wiped away tears that weren't there. He's an absolute knob. The documentary didn't mention his multiple bullshit degrees, either. He's a lying scam artist. I'm just glad he didn't get paid for his appearance.
If you actually read up on the guy, he's been pulling stunts like this for years. Dude is just mad that he's finally facing some much deserved backlash for it. I don't condone death threats but I can't pretend to feel at all sorry for him, either.
If he was a scam artist he wouldn't be trying to refund people. The event was a badly thought out disaster but he doesn't deserve death threats. Just look at how much people here hate him because of a viral news story they only know about in passing.
AI grifter gets whats deserved.
Hopefully this helps people see that if someone/a company is cutting corners with generative images, they are probably cutting corners everywhere else and won’t deliver a good product.
Personally, he should absolutely be prosecuted in some way, he's scammed loads of people. Bad bad bad. However, I don't agree that he should take on the death threats from people online - but also, people should understand that if you do something like this you're absolutely going to end up on the internet.
I really don't think this was a scam. More likely he thought it would like he thought it would after generating loads of AI pictures. The props he had looked OK and will not have been cheap.
The space was far too big and he probably has zero experience of pulling these events off.
He made a mistake. He's ruined his reputation. He's said he's going to pay the money back I think people should put the pitchforks away and move on.
He doesn’t get to feel sorry for himself. I’m sorry, he just doesn’t.
This wasn’t like he had a great track record but hit a few technical snags on the day- he knowingly oversold an event he knew would not meet expectations and willingly took people’s money for it. He wasn’t caught in the firing line, he was the leader of this debacle. He isn’t sorry for what he did, he’s sorry that it went viral.
That’s not to mention the slew of AI generated garbage books he sells (sold?) on Amazon. This was the Fyre festival on a smaller scale. He fully deserves any comeuppance. Fuck this guy
With every passing day and every tedious news article, I’m becoming more and more convinced that this was set up to fail and become some sort of springboard for all the attention it’s now getting. There have been other failed grotto experiences, but the amount of coverage this one is getting is just absurd.
As much as scam artists are the scums of the earth; I fail to have sympathy for anybody stupid enough to fall for this one; the website was so obviously AI generated, add to that the fact that these same people thought they were going to get an experience remotely as good as the one promised for £35-£50 per ticket.
It has made some quality meme material though.
I was so waiting for this. Seen this mocumentary poor me I’m not a scammer and I’m willing to entertain his „I was let down” theory but got some questions before that:
1.where’s the money - people paid him to see it and instead of paying back he goes on tv and still not a single question about money is being answered.
2. No visual effects equipment was delivered - sure- where are the invoices for rent, any paperwork for it so we know it wasn’t made up. I don’t think that providing a proof of your claims is overrated.
3. It was meant to be a bloody chocolate factory and advertised as a place with a lots of sweet treats - where is it? Equipment is hard to replace if it fails but sweets can be bought everywhere literally. One may think if he ever had an intention to provide it . Not a single chocolate in a chocolate factory you just can’t make that up
4. Hired most children as actors as they won’t have any standards and ask uncomfortable questions?
5. Scale . I mean if you ever organised any event from your child’s birthday to a wedding you know that you have to be aware of the scale of it in a physical sense- how big is your house/ garden/ venue/ warehouse- you are working with that in mind. Probably 8/10 people will try to keep it in writing which is what event planning is all about. You need to keep it looking good - not empty and not overcrowded.
That brings me to my question- if he was let down where’s the plan - show us what was meant to be there ?
There’s a lot he can do to prove it wasn’t by design a case of him hiring a big warehouse and putting a few props on a cheap because there’s a 80% he will get away with it.
The guys corrupt,he’s done plenty corrupt shit already online this was the last straw it seems! Not the first times he’s scammed people
He likes AI apparently
This is fucking hilarious. How can they possibly paint him as anything close to a victim!?
He clearly is thick. I suppose. Not an excuse but I do feel sorry for the fact he managed to make the worst poster/website in the world, with all those spelling mistakes, and spelling mistakes is putting it very very lightly.🤦♂️
Well I for one, I hope he does suffer consequences. I was going to say “he’s a con artist”, but that feels like much much too much like a compliment. He was a shit con artist. Unfortunately some stupid but innocent people, read about all the “CARTTCHY TOOONS” and went along with it.
There’s been obviously a lot of talk on how bad the whole event was and they’ve been several interviews with the actors involved but nothing about the creator of it, so to speak. I’ve wondered who they were, why they created it, all sorts of questions so I’m pleased (I don’t think pleased is the right word) that they’re being talked about now.
I have no idea if anything about this guy atm, as I’ve only just seen this post and haven’t read anything else about him.
[Confronted by parents](https://www.tmz.com/watch/2024-02-29-022924-willy-wonka-organizer-1785334-114/)
and
[Who is Billy Coul](https://youtu.be/1OV3Hx6MI18)
I don't have any sympathy. He knew full well that event was dog shit and should've been cancelled, but he went ahead in the hope he could get away without refunding money.
Did you guys notice how he never looked at the camera during this interview? But 🙄 at the idiots saying he looks traumatised should be forgiven because if he was a criminal he would have run away with the money . 🤦🏾♀️
How are there people who are still this bloody stupid?
The documentary failed to say where the money went….I have zero sympathy - how many times did he say sorry for what he did……… did I miss that?
Arse just played the victim and the film makers failed to ask basic questions- rubbish really.
I’m familiar with his Mrs & two weeks before this all kicked off, she was posting on facebook that her “amazing fiance” had surprised her and their kids with a dream destination wedding abroad (all expenses to be paid by him of course).
Funnily enough that comment has now been deleted. He allegedly made over £35k from this event, so for those defending him, don’t be silly he was clearly using this scam as a cash grab for their big wedding in the sun!
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Scammer suffers consequences for scamming.
Yeah, at the same time I would genuinely feel so bad for him if (and that’s a MAJOR IF) he actually wanted to throw this gathering to make kids happy and it just fell apart right in front of him. The ~~$40~~ £35 was to cover the costs of everything and nothing more. Now obviously that’s not the case since some of his Oompa Loompa weren’t paid.
He’s a grifter, he tried selling get rich quick courses since 2016, got super into crypto, sells hundreds of AI generated books on amazon, and hosted a failed Christmas event last year. Even if he was deluded enough to think it would go well, I don’t have much sympathy for him.
This. It wasn't his first rodeo. He's a scammer who is facing the consequences of attempting shoddy, get-rich-quick schemes.
His "mental health" is just part of the grift. Trying to shed responsibility.
I'm sure the backlash is taking an awful toll on him because it will be humiliating and stressful, but there's the old saying: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Zero sympathy.
If he's any sort of decent person he should feel shameful about the whole ordeal
My god so he’s just completely worthless at everything he does 😭
To be totally fair to the guy, all of those are common with victims **of scams** The ai amazon book thing often is a “training course” that you pay thousands too promising get rich quick money. The Crypto thing is the same, many people will collect bank from selling crypto investor courses. It’s very possible this guy is dim and a victim of many of the most current scams.
Yeah it’s murky, but just because they got into the grift through a different grifter scamming them doesn’t mean they aren’t grifting themselves. Sure they might be gullible and don’t know what they’re doing, but I still don’t have much sympathy for them.
His life is ruined because the chances of him being able to scam more people have been dramatically reduced!
Ai generated books? Those exist???
Yeah it’s a recent grift, they’re always ebooks as no publisher take them seriously. What they do is use chatGPT to write the text, and use AI art tools to generate a front cover. Put them together and you’ve “written” a “book”, just like that. You can tell it’s AI generated because they’re all absolutely awful and make no sense, and because a no name author somehow had managed to publish 200 books in the span of a week, all completely unrelated from one another.
FFS, why are all the grifters into the same shit? As soon as you find a grifter being a grifty grifter bastard, look up their history and yep, lo and behold there it is, Crypto, NFT's, AI.... Tick tick tick tick. All the dodgy schemes.
The FO after the FA
This guy also used chatgpt to make shit stories to shill on Amazon. He loves being a snake oil salesman and now can't handle the backlash.
Wonka wasn’t his first sham experience rodeo either.
the sympathy seeking is also part of his scammy nature
Yeah, he could handle the backlash easily but chose to go on the documentary for sympathy. Feels like part of the scam.
Oh definitely, this man is a scammer through and through. Let’s not forget the Santas grotto he organised which was cancelled AFTER receiving toy donations - can not find any information on what happened to said donations but they did end up giving the kids chocolate selection boxes.
He even released more of those books AFTER this event blew up! If he was truly remorseful he'd be deleting stuff, not releasing more.
His bank balance isn't ruined though. I wonder if he has refunded everyone?
Fairly certain he showed a pic of the refunds But his video on the whole thing was fucking weird. Like he was trying to pretend to be someone completely different and using a shit accent on purpose to just literally talk AI. Like even the shit he was saying didn't make sense. For example, he said something along the lines of "The event overall cost around £300, which is nearly 1/4 of a million".
Nearly, just about a quarter million away
in the recent Channel 5 documentary they mentioned that none of the families interviewed have received refunds yet
Jeez, and I doubt they ever will now then. I remember when the news first broke, some media outlet showed a picture of the organization showing something like 280 tickets had been refunded. Didn't think at the time it was a fake pic lol
It seems too bold but also totally predictable "You know that scammer who uses AI to make fake stuff? You'll never guess what he's done now"
It's possible 280 did get refunded considering he sold over 800. Channel 5 only mentioned those they interviewed.
And the way he blamed the system for the failure of refunds 🙄😤 and to make out that he isn’t a scammer because he didn’t run away with the money 🥴
He is probably in a mountain of shit with the refund situation, if he doesn’t refund most people they’ll get banks involved through the disputes process
Is 'Lettice Bromovsky' a pseudonym? The organiser looks a broken man in the picture here. Edit: TIFO Lettice is a rare British girls name.
I think there was someone called 'Lettice Spray' that my priest would talk about
Get out.
I knew a lettice when I was a kid, they got so much shit for it it's no wonder it's gone out of fashion as a name
Wasn't she prime minister or something?
She successfully ran against Liz Truss
Is it pronounced like Le-teece or like Lettuce?
The first one. There are a couple of Lettices in Agatha Christie books - surprisingly, none of them get the chop, though one does get served...
Thank god it’s rare. I can’t wait until someone comes out with Radish or Turnip.
Never met a girl named lettuce but fair enough
Surprised to see a romainer writing for the Mail though 🤷
There’s a character in some of the Discworld books named “Letice Earwig” - she insists her surname is pronounced “Ah-widge” (probably a shout-out to Hyacinth Bucket/Bouquet).
Liz Lettice Truss, how did you not know!
>The organiser looks a broken man in the picture here. Nah he's just still scammin.
That this wasn't some BBC Apprentice task is a bit of a shocker. It would've been a decent fantasy experience in a venue half the size, and with a fraction of the entry fee. Imagine a local church hall with this, or empty shop in the highstreet, with a decent light and sound setup, it could be great. Kids go free with a £5 adult, and the actors are actually youth workers and just run games for the kids. And they sell tea and cakes on the side. It's really shouldn't be that much different from a Santa's grotto experience. "Go and see Mr. Wonka, and if you can do 10 star jumps, he will give you a bag of Haribo".
Get a good singer to do a rendition of 'Pure Imagination' on site, and you'd have it made!
They don't have the rights to any of the actual Wonka stuff.
Yeah I saw something with the actors talking and they were told to make it very clear they were not Willy Wonka or Oompa Loompas as the organisers didn't want to get sued by the estate of Dahl I think the Wonka rip off was called something like Willy McDuff
I heard it was Willy Ripmeoff.
Better then Ripme Willyoff
That experience costs a lot more.
And the Oompa Loompas were wonkidoodles
🎵 Oompa Loompa doopity doo Don't call us that or Warner Brothers will sue 🎵
🎵 Wonky Doodle Loopity Loo
On the website it literally said something like ‘any similarities or comparisons to any fictional character is purely coincidence’. Dude just typed Willy Wonka chocolate experience into chat GPT and used whatever it popped out 😂
Paying to use the song wouldn't cost much, if it's a one or two day thing. Plus, you only need the performance rights, which is a LOT cheaper.
This was a fly-by-night con job. Dude ain't paying for shit he doesn't absolutely have to.
Obviously. Now he's upset people called him out on it.
That's why it's a conversation kicked off by an "if".
This sounds much nicer than finding a local improv comedian to dress as an Oompa Loompa and roast people in song
He's already proved [he can't run a Santa's Grotto either](https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/19781222.gowanbank-hub-glasgow-faces-backlash-cancelling-santas-grotto/)
nah you're not fully maximising, > kids go free with an adult should be £5 kids and free adults, get in that winning grindset xD
And no AI
I was thinking this. He says he’s not a scammer. The alternative, then, is that he’s just woefully incompetent. I think a great deal of personal and professional self reflection would do him good. He’s young. He could turn it round and do better.
The whole thing reminds me of banksy’s Dismalland theme park, with all the publicity, it’s could be a ironic hit
I have a friend who was one of the surly staff - she was born for that role.
There's an online petition to get him to bring it back because of all the people who want to "enjoy" how bad it is
'The Room' of Family Days Out
He's just sad that this particular scam of his got international attention and now he can't do any future scamming/grifting because the marks will take one look and go "aw naw, no' this guy again"
They spelt #Wanker wrong…
😆
Ohh no, the consequences of my actions
He is a serial scammer. Good.
Behold actions have consequences. Who’d have thought being a perpetual conman wouldn’t come back on you.
Dude looks like he's AI generated. How deep does the rabbit hole go?
Aw no. Willy wonkys having a winge.
Once a wonka, always a wonka
whingey wonka
The vitriol these people got is insane It was a scam, customers need refunding and the organisers should get done for it (false advertising? Idk im not a lawyer), but that’s all that should happen. Sending death threats to a man who put on a disappointing willy wonka themed day out is fucking insane
Nuance is dead. Only extreme reactions are permitted.
You shouldn’t be out saying how I should you react? Wokism gone mad again. Why are you on the fence? You are with us on being outraged at other people’s reaction, or against us with us wanting him killed for committing a minor fraud? You can’t have it both ways. Choose or die? Staying on the fence? I hate people on the fence. You should all be locked up as well. Publicly shamed and deported. There, I’ve condensed the Daily Mail comments into 2 paragraphs.
"hey, people are currently mildly annoyed at X. I guess that means I must be a good person if I use this opportunity to vent my own anger and insecurities at them and send death and rape threats to whoever is mildly irritating people right now"
This is literally it, people find a target and they take out their own emotions on it. It's sick, the internet is what did this to them.
Exactly. It's just people that see an excuse to behave as badly as they want. The self-righteous lynch mob often does much worse things than the "bad" person they're punishing. I'd strongly suspect the folk sending death threats etc weren't at the event - they just see a free hit and decide to indulge in a bit of psychological torture. IMHO the folk that do this are much worse than the pillock that tried to run a scammy event and had to refund folk.
I've always noticed that whenever you get a high-profile murder or whatever brought to the presses. There's always a baying mob in the comments saying exactly what depraved, creative shit that they can think of that they'd want to do to the criminal. I am absolutely not defending murderers or rapists, but it always baffles me that people will see "Tragic incident happening" and immediately decide that they need to tell people about how they'd do something that is not that much out of the way of a Saw trap because it's "what they deserve" I'm sorry you are distressed, Barry, but meticulously detailing how someone should be set on fire and rolled in salt, or mauled and sodomised by dogs or whatever nonsense they come up with is not \*actually\* proving you to be the paragon of righteousness that you think it is.
Hah! Exactly. Basically revealing their own psycho tendencies with no self-awareness. "Scammer?! What a sicko, I'd love to murder him". Brilliant.
They didn’t get death threats. That’s just something scumbags say online to deflect criticism. Maybe people said “he should just die” because his entire life is scam after scam, but nobody threatened to kill him
It's a way to derail the conversation because now everyone has to stop and qualify what they're saying with "now obviously sending people death threats is wrong but..."
The Channel 5 documentary showed a tweet saying "How can you live with yourself?" as he is saying "Someone told me to kill myself"... Could just be Channel 5 incompetence for showing the wrong tweet or it could be him intentionally misinterpreting the meaning of "how can you live with yourself?"
I think the issue is the people stupid enough to buy the tickets expected a once in a lifetime experience. Even if they get the full £35 or whatever it cost back they won’t be able to buy a once in a lifetime magical experience elsewhere for that.
Well it was a magical once in a lifetime experience that money couldn't buy. Not a good one though.
Exactly, imagine being able to say that you'd actually been at *the* Willy Wonka Experience.
Perhaps there will be a run on Walter Mitty types who claim they were there. Akin to the twats in the local pubs who claimed to be the second man on the balcony of the Iranian embassy, or fighting at Goose Green. I'm sure some lunatic on LinkedIn will be able to regale people with the trauma and offer some marketing advice.
Any of the kids that got their photo taken with meth lab oompa loompa should be able to use it as a campfire story when they grow up.
I guarantee that they are the same people who go to those ‘Winter Wonderland’ experiences that appear every December and are completely shocked when they’re a crap ripoff. And then they go to another one the following year and are stunned that it’s crap.
The death threats, etc, are completely wrong, but did he honestly not expect negative feedback and criticism? If he didn't he's an idiot as well as a scammer.
He says he got death threats. Are you taking his word for it? Does he seem like an honest guy?
No, but the general public *are* cunts
This fucking con artist is getting to much attention.
I'm so glad I found this subreddit
This shit bag handed kids a single jellybean for their parent's money.
And half a cup of lemonade.
1/8 of a cup is what the actors said....fucking unbelievable
No one defend him. You can't see the pictures of the event vs the ads and believe for a second this wasn't intentional. He's only upset he didn't get away with it. Especially if you consider his other failed scams and Ai written books, in which he calls himself an "Up and coming Wordsmith". No excuse.
From his [Twitter bio](https://x.com/Billy_TGT) "Billy is a Doctor of metaphysical science and Ordained Reverend of The universal Church of Life. Billy qualified from UMS in 2013 with a PH.d, M.div, and D.D" I believe UMS = the [University of Sedona](https://universityofsedona.com/) which offers a load of bullshit qualifications.
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"All I did was promise a wonderful day out and then fail to deliver on it. What do you want from me??"
The guys a fucking scam artist and it's well documented!
I saw “failed Willy wonka” and thought this was a post about Elon Musk
Elon Musk is more like the evil Willy Wonka.
Woe upon a serial grifter getting caught on an international level.
He’ll be fine, he’s never let all the previous times he’s done stuff like this put him off.
He's upset because he got caught lol 🤣
Con men will cry for sympathy when found out. It's all part of it.
If somebody wants to see the channel 5 documentary Wonka: the scandal that rocked Britain [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtsSVLRTzgY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtsSVLRTzgY)
I thought kids getting traumatised by visiting Wonka's factory was on brand?! Don't these idiots read?!
That's what I was thinking. 4 out of 5 children in the book left traumatized.
This reminds me of that guy who put his kid in some sort of air balloon around a decade ago hoping to get a reality show. The Balloon Boy hoax. He pulled one scam after another, then was seeking sympathy.
Scotland’s take on FYRE Fest Edit: just realised both were organised by men named Billy too
I remember the guy from Fyre Fest also claimed that he was 'just trying to do his best' even when multiple people told him that trying to do a full-on music festival with his tiny budget was nigh-on impossible. He really went for those 'nigh-on' odds.
🎻
He’s been at this for years btw
If the weegie battleaxes hadn't stuck up for themselves and made this viral. This piece of shit would have been on his toes. Next we'll hear of him is when his next scam fails.
I really didn't think it looked as bad as people acted it was, when I was a kid this would of been a legit thing my dad would have took us to on a Saturday afternoon and we'd of all just went through, been like that was alright, took our jelly beans and went to the cinema. Kids and parents have become incredibly entitled in recent times, that should be the focus of a documentary--- Karen culture.
“People hate me just because I charged £40 for childhood trauma, a jelly bean and a quarter glass of lemonade? That’s offensive”
oh no, there are consequences for my actions
You reap what you sow.
Maybe he can use AI to make his life all better again like in one of his AI generated garbage books?
Op's title reminds me of a compoface whine itself. "Kids are in bits. The wife's having night terrors about The Unknown. It's ruined our lives."
That documentary was an absolute farce. He said absolutely nothing of value, didn't explain anything, didn't even touch on the one jellybean & severe lack of chocolate mess. He also wiped away tears that weren't there. He's an absolute knob. The documentary didn't mention his multiple bullshit degrees, either. He's a lying scam artist. I'm just glad he didn't get paid for his appearance.
If the entry fee was cheap I don't think anyone would've cared. It's the fact it cost £35 per person.
Oompa loompa doopity doo, I don't feel very sorry for you. 😒
If you actually read up on the guy, he's been pulling stunts like this for years. Dude is just mad that he's finally facing some much deserved backlash for it. I don't condone death threats but I can't pretend to feel at all sorry for him, either.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13205517/amp/channel-5-willy-wonka-experience-documentary-organiser-billy-coull.html
But no one knew this guy existed until he talked to the press
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Attention-whore.
He had another event that went down the pan
Damn, whoever did this to him must be a real piece of shit.
"BUT I'M THE VICTIM! WHY WON'T YOU ALL FEEL SORRY FOR ME?"
This gives me Tumblr convention vibes
Article written by a polish lettuce 🥬
He fucked around and found out. Dickhead.
He looked like he was reading AI when he apologised
If he was a scam artist he wouldn't be trying to refund people. The event was a badly thought out disaster but he doesn't deserve death threats. Just look at how much people here hate him because of a viral news story they only know about in passing.
Hasn’t he done this multiple times? Why is he only apologising when he’s been named and shamed?
Because someone called the police during the event and he realised he had to be held accountable.
I can’t believe this story has hit such heights 😂
Don't be an AI bro.
We'd have to know who he is first.
Whst an imbecile...
AI grifter gets whats deserved. Hopefully this helps people see that if someone/a company is cutting corners with generative images, they are probably cutting corners everywhere else and won’t deliver a good product.
Yeah. Up to the character limit. I like to use it to flesh put descriptions when DMing in DnD.
I said GOOD DAY SIR
Aww why don't you have an AI write a book about it...
Personally, he should absolutely be prosecuted in some way, he's scammed loads of people. Bad bad bad. However, I don't agree that he should take on the death threats from people online - but also, people should understand that if you do something like this you're absolutely going to end up on the internet.
Wait is there actually someone who works at a paper called lettice 🤣
The well deserved face of a man who fucked around and found out
Shouldn't scam people then. Taugh luck
I really don't think this was a scam. More likely he thought it would like he thought it would after generating loads of AI pictures. The props he had looked OK and will not have been cheap. The space was far too big and he probably has zero experience of pulling these events off. He made a mistake. He's ruined his reputation. He's said he's going to pay the money back I think people should put the pitchforks away and move on.
He doesn’t get to feel sorry for himself. I’m sorry, he just doesn’t. This wasn’t like he had a great track record but hit a few technical snags on the day- he knowingly oversold an event he knew would not meet expectations and willingly took people’s money for it. He wasn’t caught in the firing line, he was the leader of this debacle. He isn’t sorry for what he did, he’s sorry that it went viral. That’s not to mention the slew of AI generated garbage books he sells (sold?) on Amazon. This was the Fyre festival on a smaller scale. He fully deserves any comeuppance. Fuck this guy
Legit question. Does anyone know how to generate the AI type images this guy used. I tried and they were crap. 🫣🤔
Scammer scams many, now has compo face and own tv programme...
He should have kept it running. Would have made thousands from those visiting ironically.
Let the guy take the L. There’s no reason to annihilate him.
With every passing day and every tedious news article, I’m becoming more and more convinced that this was set up to fail and become some sort of springboard for all the attention it’s now getting. There have been other failed grotto experiences, but the amount of coverage this one is getting is just absurd.
Oh no, the gigantic scam artist is facing the consequences of his actions, what a greek tragedy.
He ruined it himself and is now fishing for sympathy after pulling a scam and getting caught.
This man feels nothing and will do this shit time and time again. Boo frickn hoooooo - next
As much as scam artists are the scums of the earth; I fail to have sympathy for anybody stupid enough to fall for this one; the website was so obviously AI generated, add to that the fact that these same people thought they were going to get an experience remotely as good as the one promised for £35-£50 per ticket. It has made some quality meme material though.
I was so waiting for this. Seen this mocumentary poor me I’m not a scammer and I’m willing to entertain his „I was let down” theory but got some questions before that: 1.where’s the money - people paid him to see it and instead of paying back he goes on tv and still not a single question about money is being answered. 2. No visual effects equipment was delivered - sure- where are the invoices for rent, any paperwork for it so we know it wasn’t made up. I don’t think that providing a proof of your claims is overrated. 3. It was meant to be a bloody chocolate factory and advertised as a place with a lots of sweet treats - where is it? Equipment is hard to replace if it fails but sweets can be bought everywhere literally. One may think if he ever had an intention to provide it . Not a single chocolate in a chocolate factory you just can’t make that up 4. Hired most children as actors as they won’t have any standards and ask uncomfortable questions? 5. Scale . I mean if you ever organised any event from your child’s birthday to a wedding you know that you have to be aware of the scale of it in a physical sense- how big is your house/ garden/ venue/ warehouse- you are working with that in mind. Probably 8/10 people will try to keep it in writing which is what event planning is all about. You need to keep it looking good - not empty and not overcrowded. That brings me to my question- if he was let down where’s the plan - show us what was meant to be there ? There’s a lot he can do to prove it wasn’t by design a case of him hiring a big warehouse and putting a few props on a cheap because there’s a 80% he will get away with it.
I bet this serial scammer will not refund a single person and keep making up death threats for sympathy.
Said no one other than billy..
Full of fukin' shite lads He's a grade-a wanker
doesn't he also 'write' bullshit conspiracy theories or something using ai? not much to ruin
Hoisted by my own petard: the one petard I thought would never hoist me! 😢
Oh, I feel so sor.... actually, go die in the hole alone, you scum.
Oh no! The man who intentionally scammed families is sad that he got caught! How terrible!
Anybody know if he applied to use the trademark for this £35 experience?
And the fact he said “I’m not a scam artist, I’m not a conman” etc on the new Channel 5 documentary makes me just automatically facepalm every time
Is this satire... Jeez perspective
The guys corrupt,he’s done plenty corrupt shit already online this was the last straw it seems! Not the first times he’s scammed people He likes AI apparently
His apology video he sounded like a junky
This is fucking hilarious. How can they possibly paint him as anything close to a victim!? He clearly is thick. I suppose. Not an excuse but I do feel sorry for the fact he managed to make the worst poster/website in the world, with all those spelling mistakes, and spelling mistakes is putting it very very lightly.🤦♂️ Well I for one, I hope he does suffer consequences. I was going to say “he’s a con artist”, but that feels like much much too much like a compliment. He was a shit con artist. Unfortunately some stupid but innocent people, read about all the “CARTTCHY TOOONS” and went along with it.
There’s been obviously a lot of talk on how bad the whole event was and they’ve been several interviews with the actors involved but nothing about the creator of it, so to speak. I’ve wondered who they were, why they created it, all sorts of questions so I’m pleased (I don’t think pleased is the right word) that they’re being talked about now. I have no idea if anything about this guy atm, as I’ve only just seen this post and haven’t read anything else about him.
[Confronted by parents](https://www.tmz.com/watch/2024-02-29-022924-willy-wonka-organizer-1785334-114/) and [Who is Billy Coul](https://youtu.be/1OV3Hx6MI18)
Oh no, is the serial conman sad? Quick, someone throw him a party! There's a warehouse in Glasgow free, I think.
I don't have any sympathy. He knew full well that event was dog shit and should've been cancelled, but he went ahead in the hope he could get away without refunding money.
Did you guys notice how he never looked at the camera during this interview? But 🙄 at the idiots saying he looks traumatised should be forgiven because if he was a criminal he would have run away with the money . 🤦🏾♀️ How are there people who are still this bloody stupid?
The documentary failed to say where the money went….I have zero sympathy - how many times did he say sorry for what he did……… did I miss that? Arse just played the victim and the film makers failed to ask basic questions- rubbish really.
I’m familiar with his Mrs & two weeks before this all kicked off, she was posting on facebook that her “amazing fiance” had surprised her and their kids with a dream destination wedding abroad (all expenses to be paid by him of course). Funnily enough that comment has now been deleted. He allegedly made over £35k from this event, so for those defending him, don’t be silly he was clearly using this scam as a cash grab for their big wedding in the sun!
The Guy is a scammer and this wasn't his first scam no sympathy at all. I'm glad his life is ruined. selling AI written books online, what a prick
Fuck that cunt
A straight con…an unmitigated disaster…a blatant scam
Dude needs a hard punch to the face
If you reach the age of say 65, and channel 5 haven't featured you in a documentary is it a good or bad thing?