HGTV Canada Co-Host Charged With Extortion

TORONTO — Oh dear: HGTV Canada bills The Unsellables co-host Anthony Sayers as a “trusty contractor.”

Toronto police apparently think otherwise after they charged the Canadian TV home makeover personality with alleged extortion and criminal harassment.

Police with 53 Division in Toronto said they arrested Sayers on Saturday in connection with an extortion investigation after a woman hired the veteran contractor to complete renovations at her downtown home.

Sayers, who owns and operates a company called Anthony Sayers Custom Builder and Designer in Toronto, is charged with two counts of criminal harassment, and one count each of attempted fraud and extortion over work done at the woman’s downtown home.

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The police complaint alleges that Sayers, also known as Barrington Anthony Sayers, 41, “provided substandard work, criminally harassed and extorted the woman” by threatening her for non-payment.

Sayers co-hosts The Unsellables from indie producer Cineflix Productions with British TV personality Sophie Allsopp.

Toronto-based Cineflix Productions bills the reality series as Allsopp and Sayers tackling the most “unsightly and unsellable listings on the real estate market,” and encouraging desperate homeowners “to get smart, let go of the past, and prepare for a sale.”

Allsopp is also host of The Unsellables UK, along with the UKTV property series Gentrification, More4 Channel’s Property Guide, and Channel 4’s primetime special The Ten Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK. 

HGTV Canada on its website adds Sayers has a “large and dedicated clientele” in Toronto.

Local police believe “there may be more victims” and released his mugshot online to help bring other complainants forward.

Sayers was also the featured carpenter on 52 episodes of the W Network’s series Me, My House and I.