Lottery Winner Refuses To Pay Window Cleaner

Mr Rix said he was asked to clean the house near Bibury in a one-off commission that took his team four hours. The Bourton Vale Window Cleaning Services worker was thanked for cleaning the £5million mansion by the estate's manager, Danny Baker. However, Steve later received a call from Danny, explaining his boss was refusing to pay the bill.

£56m EuroMillions jackpot winner taken to court by window cleaner over £375 bill: A window cleaner is suing one of Britain's biggest ever lottery winners – over an alleged unpaid bill of £375. Steve Rix claims £56million jackpot winner Nigel Page withheld payment because a member of the cleaning team took a picture of one of his sports cars. Mr Rix, 57, says his staff spent four hours polishing mirrors, wiping down glass staircases, and cleaning swimming pool windows in Page's £5million rural eco-mansion.

But an hour after he left he got a call from the estate manager, Danny Baker, who told him that CCTV footage captured one of the workers photographing a McLaren sports car. Mr Rix, who earns £13,000 a year, says he apologised and ensured the image was deleted - but claims Page refused to pay due to the 'breach of privacy'. He said yesterday: 'That money is nothing to him but to me it's half a month's wages. 'To come up with such a petty reason not to pay is just ridiculous. 'He probably earns the money he owes every minute in interest. There's no reason for him not to pay up.'

Nigel Page, 48, won £56million on the EuroMillions jackpot in 2010 - the UK's sixth biggest windfall. The former property maintenance worker married Justine Page, 45, shortly after the win, and they moved into the six-bedroom Cotswolds home, near Bibury, Gloucestershire. It has a swimming pool, a 25-seat cinema, and vast grounds. Mr Rix says he was asked to clean glass inside the home by Mrs Page in May, a one-off commission that took four of his workers four hours to carry out.

They were followed around the property by the housemaid who told them that the glass had never been so clean. But in spite of their apparent good work, Mr Rix was told they would not be paid for their work after a 'breach of privacy'. He said recalled: 'On the way out one of the lads saw a McLaren F1 car. He hadn't seen anything like it before so he took a picture on his phone. 'After Mr Page saw the incident on CCTV he went mad and we were told they wouldn't be paying us. 'To use a reason like that is ridiculous. That car is often seen out on the public highways, driving around. 'He didn't include the registration plate or any of the house in it either. At no point were we told there were to be strictly no pictures.

Nigel Page, 44, and Laycock, 42,became Britain’s biggest lottery winners in February 2010,when the Cirencester couple won £56m with a EuroMillions lucky dip ticket that Page had bought online.They vowed to look after their family and friends. Page ran his own property company before the win,while Laycock was a negotiator for an estate agent.They have moved into an eco-friendly £4m mansion and left their previous £400,000 home to their cleaner.

'They kept refusing to pay. That money is the equivalent of a week's wages for one of my lads.' Mr Rix launched a case at the small claims court on October 2 and Page has 14 days - until October 16 - to respond. Mr Rix, who has been running Bourton Vale Window Cleaning Services for 20 years, added he has lots of rich and famous clients and none have ever acted like this before. He said: 'We do a lot of famous and rich people and we have their keys. Everything we do, we do on trust.'

Nigel Page won £56million in 2010 and refuses to pay the £375 bill because a cleaner "invaded his privacy".

Nigel and Justine Page are currently out of the country and have been unavailable for comment, although a family member said it was 'unlikely' they would have anything to add. Answering the intercom at their house, the Pages' estate manager Danny Baker said: 'I don't really want to comment on this other than the fact it was a breach of security as made out when he first arrived on site.' He added it was Mr Rix's 'prerogative' to take them to court if he wished. A few months after Mr Page's massive lottery win, he was the subject of legal action from his ex-wife Wendy, who then received £2million of his winnings despite leaving him for another man ten years previously.

Car Technology Leading The Way For Window Cleaning?

Could car technology wipe out the need for window cleaners in homes?

McLaren To Do Away With Windshield Wipers? Is McLaren about to do away completely with windshield wipers? According to comments made by the sports car manufacturer’s chief designer, that may just be the case. Speaking recently with the Sunday Times (via CarsUK), Frank Stephenson said his employer is developing a system that can repel material from a windshield by creating a force field using high-frequency sound waves. Such systems were originally created by the military for use on fighter jets.

Stephenson didn’t go into detail but explained that an ultrasonic transducer on the screen could send 30 kHz waves of ultrasound across the surface and repel all debris--even snow and insects. Benefits of the system are said to be improved visibility, since debris would be repelled instantly, as well as improved aerodynamic efficiency, due to less drag. It would also mean no more days of having to remove ice from the windshield in northern climates, or at least that’s the thinking.

Unfortunately, there’s no word on when we might see the system fitted to one of McLaren’s cars. Note, this isn’t the first time Stephenson has mentioned the system. During a previous interview with YouTube channel Drive, Stephenson not only talked about wiper-less windshields but also color-changing exterior panels, glowing interiors and shape changing memory materials.

The windscreen wiper has been around since 1903, and its basic design hasn’t changed much since. Coming up with the idea was inventor Mary Anderson, who saw the need for a ‘window cleaning device’ after she saw drivers sticking their heads out of the car to see where they were going during heavy rain.

McLaren plan to make windscreen wipers obsolete.

McLaren are planning to make windscreen wipers obsolete with plans to use a high frequency electronic system to clear windscreens in cars. Much of the ‘clunkiness’ in cars – stuff like wind-up windows and a cranking handle – have been made obsolete in cars as technology arrived to make things work better, but one thing that remains on modern cars from the dawn of the motoring age is the windscreen wiper.

Invented by Mary Anderson (pictured) in 1903 after she realised drivers of the first motor cars were having to lean out of the window in rainy conditions to see where they were going, it became a standard fitting on all cars within a few years. Windscreen wipers have certainly improved over the years as technology has developed, but they’re still basically a strip of rubber moving across the windscreen to clear rain. But that looks set to change. Frank Stephenson, McLaren’s Chief Designer, has told the Sunday Times that McLaren are close to developing a system that will do away with windscreen wipers altogether.

Frank said the idea comes from the military and, although he refused to go in to detail, it seems likely it will use an ultrasonic transducer on the screen to send 30kHz waves of ultrasound across the screen removing all debris – rain, snow and even insects – instantly. It seems this isn’t science fiction, but a system McLaren hopes to be able to roll out in the next couple of years. And although it sounds expensive, it could actually be a lot cheaper to fit than a pair of wipers and their motors. Clever stuff.

They already have this..

Wild color changing “paramagnetic paint”, at the press of a button, change the colour of your car! With the introduction of a new technology using ‘paramagnetic’ paint coating, the choice won’t be set in stone the moment the car rolls off the production line. In fact, the concept is to allow owners to change the paintjob whenever they see fit – whether that be in the car park or at the lights. This changes paint colour by adjusting the voltage of an electrical current sent through the vehicle’s bodywork.

The technology works by running a current through a special polymer applied to the vehicle before painting. This polymer contains particles of ‘paramagnetic’ iron oxide. With the application of an electric current, the spacing of the oxide’s crystals is adjusted, affecting their level of light reflection and thus our colour perception.