A dirty business: Laundromat owner paid men to damage store he saw as competition

Upset about a rival laundromat opening across the road, businessman Timothy Raymond Jeffs set out on a relentless path of threats, blackmail and sabotage. 

The 35-year-old Hamilton man even went to competitor Sachin Dhamija’s home and told his wife that, if they opened their shop, “I will damage it”. 

And it’s exactly what he did. 

He got two men, paying one $250, to rip out two gas water heaters from the back of Dhamija’s Maxaclean laundromat in Hillcrest, leaving gas leaking out all night. Four months later, he arranged for someone to graffiti the shop. 

Jeffs owns the Gull Whitikahu petrol station, along with seven laundromats around Hamilton, including the Hillcrest Self Service Laundromat on Cambridge Rd. 

But in September 2023, as Dhamija set about opening his shop, tensions began brewing. 

They resulted in Jeffs being sentenced earlier this month in the Hamilton District Court on charges of theft, blackmail and intentional damage in relation to numerous incidents from October 6, 2023, to July 2024. 

Jeffs had already accepted a sentence indication by Judge Crayton, so he knew he wouldn’t be going to jail. 

From trespass to threats 

The court’s summary of facts states that Jeffs was trespassed by Sachin Dhamija, more commonly known as Anand, on October 6, 2023. 

When served with the trespass notice, Jeffs threatened to cause serious damage to the business, saying, “If you open the shop, I will damage it”. 

On October 30, two days before the opening, Jeffs was seen on CCTV returning to Dhamija’s laundromat at 8.48pm. 

It was closed, so he walked up and peered through the window for some time. 

The next day, Jeffs went to Dhamija’s home to serve a trespass notice on him. 

He told Pooja Dhamija, who was home with their children, that “If you’re going to open your shop, my business partners are going to damage the shop and I won’t be responsible”. 

Jeffs returned to Maxaclean at 9.43pm on November 1, looking around the store before briefly leaving and returning six minutes later to take a photo or video of the shop. 

On November 6, at 11.40pm, two men turned up at Maxaclean armed with a handsaw and hammer. They cut the gas pipelines and removed two gas heaters. 

The gas was left flowing all night, risking an explosion. 

The business was closed for two days as the damage was repaired. The stolen heaters were never recovered. 

Jeffs paid one of the men $250 to carry out the job. 

On the evening of March 7, 2024, Jeffs was seen on CCTV walking back and forth outside the laundromat holding his phone and taking photos. 

Four hours later, an associate of Jeffs returned to the shop and graffitied the front of it. 

A $325 flag was stolen the following month. 

On June 11, Jeffs approached a customer leaving Maxaclean and spoke to her for “some time”. 

Two men were paid by Tim Jeffs to rip out the gas water heaters from behind Maxaclean Laundromat in Hillcrest, Hamilton. 

He returned to the store at 8.19pm on July 4, and stood outside “for a long period of time, examining the store, before leaving and returning at 9.18pm”, to stare at the shop again. 

When arrested, Jeffs told police, “The guy is nuts”, and “I know he jumps up and down and he tries to trash my name with the neighbours, I can’t understand what angle he’s coming at this time”. 

He refused to comment on the offending and, when asked about making threats, replied, “I don’t think there were any threats made.” 

NZME phoned Jeffs at Gull Whitikahu to find out why the behaviour started and whether he was planning to stop. 

Jeffs was initially uninterested in commenting, but called back shortly afterwards to say that Dhamija wasn’t always correct in what he said and to be careful about what was reported. 

Hillcrest Self Service Laundromat owner Tim Jeffs peers through the window of Maxaclean laundromat on the night of October 30, 2023, two days before it officially opened. 

“What he’s told you is probably a bunch of porkies,” he said. 

When asked if it was all going to stop, and if he would move on, Jeffs hung up. 

NZME caught up with Dhamija at his Hillcrest laundromat and asked how the debacle came about. 

He said that Jeffs had operated a laundromat in the premises before his lease expired. 

Jeffs then moved across the road, but another person started up a laundromat at the site. 

Dhamija then took over. 

Dhamija claimed that Jeffs started asking questions about what was going in there before he’d opened, and that was why he had to trespass him on October 6. 

He then asked his electrician to install a security camera, and caught Jeffs turning up and peering inside. 

Maxaclean Laundromat owners Sachin and Pooja Dhamija outside their business on Cambridge Rd, Hamilton. Photo / Belinda Feek 

NZME has seen several videos showing Jeffs walking past, or approaching the business, of it being graffitied, and of the gas pipes being ripped out. 

In CCTV footage of Jeffs speaking to Pooja Dhamija at the family home on October 31, Jeffs tells her, “The problem is you guys are opening up to try and take my business. 

“My business is across the road, so by you opening up across the road you are going in direct competition with my business.” 

When Pooja Dhamija tells him that customers can choose, Jeffs says, “There are not different sets of customers. 

“They’re the same customers ... you are setting up to take my customers, that’s what you’re doing.” 

Timothy Jeffs approaching the Dhamijas' home three weeks after being trespassed from their laundromat. 

He can then be heard saying that his “business partners” are unhappy about the Dhamijas setting up, and tells her to move the laundromat to a different location. 

She says they can’t, and Jeffs responds by saying he will lower his prices, and that his business partners are “bad” people. 

“I’m not responsible for what [they] do,” he tells her. 

A younger Tim Jeffs outside his other business, Gull Whitikahu, in 2017. Photo / Natalie Akoorie 

It remains unclear whether the issues between the businessmen have ceased. 

Supervision and community detention 

At Jeffs’ sentencing, Judge Crayton and lawyer Mark Jepson, for Jeffs, discussed reasonable curfews for a community detention sentence that would allow him to work but would also prevent him from going “walkabout”. 

Jepson said Jeffs’ petrol station didn’t close until 7pm, and he then faced a 33-minute drive home. 

Then, once his curfew kicked in, he would monitor his seven laundromat businesses. 

It was then decided that Jeffs’ morning curfews would be either 4.30am or 5am, and night curfew would either be 8.15pm or midnight, depending on the day of the week. 

Judge Crayton sentenced Jeffs to nine months’ supervision, and the maximum six months’ community detention. 

He was also ordered to pay $1000 towards damages, and $3000 emotional harm reparation to Sachin Dhamija within seven days, and attend a non-violence programme or any other programme as directed by his probation officer. 

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.