A team of Tauranga tradies are being dubbed 'absolute angels” for going out of their way to help the victim of a landscape gardener's deceit.

The Spruce Up Company's Richard Knaggs and his team, along with Paul de Jong from Paving Worx/Alpine Stones, visited Ken D'Souza's Auckland home in August to fix up a landscaping job that left his garden looking worse than when it started.

Workers from The Spruce Up Company and Paving Worx/Alpine Stones came to Ken D'Souza's rescue.

Ken paid $2500 for Brent Knight to complete the job in June, but when the gardener 'ran off” with Ken's money without completing the job, the unhappy homeowner took the issue to TV3's Campbell Live.

After seeing the story, Richard, Paul and their team came to the rescue.

'When we saw it we thought we could go up there and give them a hand,” says Richard. 'We've got the knowhow and the opportunity to go and do it.

'We're just good Samaritans - we felt sorry for them and decided to go up there and help them out.”

They supplied all materials and two days' worth of labour in order to complete the job, and even went the extra mile to build a new deck for Ken.

All told, Richard estimates the job would have cost $8000-$9000, which they fixed up for Ken free of charge.

Richard says they were the first of 15 people who offered to fix Brent Knight's unfinished job.

'We're not the only good Samaritans, there were 15 other from Auckland apparently,” he adds.

Ken says it was a big surprise to hear Richard and Paul wanted to help.

'I don't know how to thank them,” he says. 'My wholehearted thanks goes to the team from Spruce Up and Paul from Paving Worx/Alpine Stones.

'Every day when I come home from work I just think of them. I look at my property and see the wonderful work that they've done. It's magic.”

Ken says Brent quoted him $5000 for the job, of which Ken paid half.

He says his property was left a disaster area after Brent had been around in June – a disaster that left him $2500 out of pocket.

Once the story aired on television, Ken says he received an email saying he would be paid back in regular amounts. So far, Ken has only received $25 back.

'If I got the money back from the guy I would have paid it back to Richard or the kids,” he explains.

Brent this month promised Campbell Live he would repay every cent he owes back to each of his clients. It's believed Brent owes at least $35,000 to families across Auckland.

He says: 'Basically the situation here is I've found myself, through lack of poor judgement and my own stupid decision making – and to be honest really poor contact with my customers – in a position where I've ended up owing people money.”