It's done. Deep Cycle Systems paid everything the court ordered. They paid on a Friday — the day after the deadline, as has been their custom throughout this entire case.
The court ruled in my favour over a year ago. What followed was nearly 12 months of DCS ignoring court orders, refusing every reasonable exit I offered, and forcing additional legal action at every step. Right after the ruling I offered a settlement. They could have walked away for roughly half of what they ultimately paid. They said no. In doing so, they nearly doubled their own cost.
When the cost order was finally issued, they still didn't pay. So we filed a wind-up application in the Federal Court. That would have ended DCS as a company. A hearing was scheduled for the following month. Only then did they pay. That's Paul Tomolowicz from DCS — consistently picking the most expensive option, right to the end.
One More Thing on Record
When DCS paid the cost order, I'd already been forced to file the wind-up application — which added further legal costs that DCS is liable for. At the same time as sending payment, Paul Tomolowicz sent a message to my lawyer refusing those additional costs and stating — quoting directly — "I will be on his doorstep first thing in the morning." That meant my doorstep.
My lawyers responded immediately. They told him not to come near me and advised that if he did, police would be called and an AVO applied for. I'm not saying this to inflame anyone. I'm saying it because if anything ever happens, there is now a record.
I spent years working as a bodyguard and doorman. I've practised martial arts for over 40 years and spent more than 20 years teaching self-defence. I don't seek conflict — but I can protect my family and myself if it comes to that.
How It Started
When this began, I was on my own — facing a lawsuit that could have cost over half a million dollars for something I knew I hadn't done wrong. The first thing I did was take everything to a legal team: the evidence, the communications, everything Paul had said to me over the years. Their assessment was that I had a very solid defence on multiple grounds, but it would be costly, it would be long, and costs had to be paid upfront. That's how it works in Australia.
If I'd done something wrong — exaggerated, fabricated, been malicious — I would have settled and moved on. Everything in my videos and on Facebook came from my own experience or from people who contacted me with the same issues. I have evidence for all of it.
The specific videos DCS sued me over had been online for many months and had around 39,000 views combined at the time they filed. If DCS had stayed quiet, that would have been the end of it.
Why I Went Public
Once it was clear DCS wasn't going to back down and I wasn't going to roll over, I had a decision to make. I sat on it for weeks. Eventually I went public, and that's when everything changed.
DCS and a distributor in the USA called what followed an "influencer cartel" — a coordinated campaign against them. There was no cartel. No coordination. Nothing orchestrated. DCS started this lawsuit. I didn't. When something like this hits social media, nobody controls it.
What became obvious quickly is that it resonated far beyond anyone who'd ever bought a DCS battery. Creators worldwide picked it up because the principle affects every one of them. If a company with deep enough pockets can use a lawsuit to shut down an honest review — whether they have a case or not — that is a terrible precedent for anyone who puts an opinion on camera. That's what spread this globally: not a cartel, a principle.
And the brutal irony: if DCS hadn't pushed a lawsuit, my original videos would be long forgotten. They built the monster themselves.
The Streisand Effect — By the Numbers
My original videos had 39,000 views when DCS filed suit. By the time this was over, conservative estimates based on YouTube metrics, articles, forums, Reddit, and fundraising engagement put total exposure at between 3.5 and 7 million people worldwide.
That's a Streisand Effect.
More than 20 channels and publications worldwide covered the case — most of them people I'd never spoken to before. Louis Rossman covered it seven times. John Cadogan at Auto Expert TV four times. Dave Jones at EEVBlog. Will Prowse at DIY Solar Power. Linus Tech Tips. Plus Aussie Overland, Lock Your Hubs, Australian 4x4 Adventures, Nazime Adventures, Defender Mods and Travel, The Den of Tools, Liquid Audio, Skunky Designs, Off Tracks 4x4, Drew Stevenson, Phil's Camping Reviews, Robert Pepper, and more. I can't overstate what that meant.
Some high-profile Australian content creators in the 4WD space went completely silent on this. That surprised me, because it affected every one of them who does real product reviews. If an honest review can be shut down by a lawsuit filed not to win but to silence, that's a terrible precedent for the whole industry.
What Every Content Creator in Australia Needs to Know
Anyone can sue you here. Doesn't matter how factual your content is, how solid your evidence, how clearly you stayed within the truth. If someone has enough money, they can file a claim and you have to defend it.
Corporations now face restrictions on where they can bring a defamation action. Under the Defamation Act, a corporation can only sue if it qualifies as an "excluded corporation" — fewer than 10 employees at the time of publication, and not associated with other corporations under the same director. Both conditions must be satisfied.
But here's the part that should concern you: there is no legal obligation on the plaintiff's lawyers to verify those conditions before filing. None. They lodge a claim, and it's up to the defendant to raise it and prove it in court. That takes time. It costs money.
DCS eventually failed that test. The court found they had no right to bring the action — remarkable given that DCS had always presented itself to me and in its own public communications as a large international business, with factories and warehouses in Europe and the US and subsidiaries worldwide. In court, Paul's own evidence contradicted what he'd told me over the years. He couldn't reconcile his prior claims with what he was arguing from the witness box.
Choose your legal team carefully. Not who promises the best outcome — who has genuine expertise in the specific area. My team was Piquette Cruzers with barrister Justin Castellan. Both are specialists in defamation law, and they were outstanding.
Thank You
2,763 people donated to the GoFundMe. Most of them had never bought a DCS battery in their lives. They decided this was worth backing — donations ranged from $2 to $10,000. Every single one gave me the resolve to keep going when it felt impossible.
The comment ratio across the entire case was 99.99% positive.
Dozens of DCS customers contacted me privately with their own battery issues. They corroborated everything in my original videos. Their willingness to share that — often with nothing to gain — gave me evidence I needed and the confidence to hold the line. Some prefer to stay anonymous, but they know who they are.
People who helped with research, information, and who were just there through two years of this: Chris Eid, Steve Richardson, Jens Burken, Jay Helwell, and Elma Shah — Managing Director of productreview.com.au, who takes the authenticity of consumer reviews as seriously as anyone I've come across.
Something personal: my daughter, now 17, was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and is in treatment. I'm glad this is behind us.
Donations — Royal Flying Doctors
Early on I said everything from the GoFundMe would go to the Royal Flying Doctors. That was genuine. But as things dragged on for two years I stopped making the promise — I couldn't honestly guarantee it. Some of the larger contributors structured theirs as loans, to be repaid if I won.
The money from DCS goes first to repaying those loans. After that, a sizable donation goes to the Royal Flying Doctors. It'll take some time — my daughter is the priority right now — but it will happen.
Two years of stress and hundreds of hours of personal time: no amount of money recovers that. But we won, and we won the right way.
Paul Tomolowicz — In His Own Words
To close: a voice message from Paul Tomolowicz, recorded in July 2023, after my third and final set of DCS batteries showed massive capacity degradation after 18 months under the bonnet.
He describes the defective cell batch, the return process, the compensation arrangement with his cell supplier — and then explains the nature of lithium battery manufacturing like this:
"Not only do we play Russian roulette with battery cells, you are then trying to stabilise electronics. So you've got two factors in the system. Lithium batteries are way more complex to get right, and this is the nature of the beast and it is very complicated and is very tricky."
And then: "That's just the battery business 101 anyway."
His words. Not mine.
All videos in the DCS series are on the AllOffRoad YouTube channel.
