WATCH | Builder uses digger to smash up new hotel lobby

A builder drove a digger through the doors of a Liverpool hotel and smashed up the entrance and lobby following a pay dispute.

Footage captures onlookers shouting at the driver to stop as the machine mounts the steps of the Travelodge. Debris went flying as the digger crashed through the doors, the BBC reported.

An eyewitness, ceiling fixer Samuel White, told the BBC the driver was involved in a pay dispute over £600 (R10,700) with contractors at the hotel, which is under construction.

"The site manager was running around like a headless chicken, he wasn't happy at all."

Police are investigating.