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Five more claim they’re roofing scam victims

UPDATE July 30: Members of the Prince Edward County Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are continuing a fraud investigation, connected to an alleged roofing scam.

The investigation began July 16, 2019 when two people reported that they had paid for work on their roofs, but the work had not been initiated. As of July 29, 2019 five other victims have come forward with complaints of roofing work that was paid for but never done. The incidents involve more than $27,000.

Anyone who may have been the victim of such a situation is asked to contact Provincial Constable Aaron Miller of the Prince Edward OPP at 613-476-2151.

July 17 – A Consecon man will face charges from Prince Edward OPP following investigation into two complaints he had been paid for work on roofing that was never started.

The first complainant had enlisted a contractor for roofing in March 2019, could not resolve the issue on her own, and finally came to police. She reported a deposit of just over $9,400 was given to the suspect for work to be completed on her County Road 15 home in Hillier. A second complaint regarding the same suspect and details was reported on June 6, 2019 for a Centre Street, Picton address with a deposit of over $5,000.

The 37-year-old contractor has been charged with Fraud over $5,000 and is scheduled to appear in the Ontario Court of Justice on Wednesday, July 31 at 9:30 am.

Constable Karen German, Communiy Safety Officer, said any person with information regarding these incidents should immediately contact the Ontario Provincial Police at 1-888-310-1122.

If you or someone you know suspect they’ve been a victim of fraud contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

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  1. Dennis Fox says:

    I just had my roof replaced by B&T Roofing (a local firm) – they did a great job! I phoned about a dozen roofing contractors back in January for a written quote for a job I wanted done in JUne – meaning that they would have to visit my home for measurements. I received 4 responses. This experience proved for me that it pays to shop around and compare. Due to the bad spring, B & T Roofing were honest and up front – they were running behind schedule – which is understandable. The key here was communication, but also hiring a person/firm that came across as honest and decent. plus they didn’t want a down payment – pay when the work is done, I was told. They arrived at my house about 10 days ago, during the hottest weather I can recall in years – they completed the job in 5 working days! They left the site clean and without any problems. The roofer who is the subject of this article could use a few lessons from B & T Roofing – of what not to do and that honesty is the best policy.

  2. Dave says:

    unfortunately bad contractors are plentiful, not just in the county but everywhere.

    Here are some of my experiences:

    1. The contractor (#1) used my job as a “filler” job between other projects even though I made it clear I had a hard deadline, that he agreed to. The date was easily attainable. This lead me to miss an entire rental season, I am out $30k in rental income.

    2. Contractor #2 started work on a renovation, worked for a week and then disappeared. A year later he texts me asking if I still need help!

    3. Contractors #3. were brought in to fix what #1 screwed up. They couldn’t show up before noon due to various issues which were: 2 had their bank accounts seized, 1 had no money to fix their car, and the other decided that I was an easy mark and slowed down his work speed to 1/2.

    4. Contractor #4. A well know one. I gave him a list of work to do and on the following friday he called me at 4pm and demanded $10,000. I asked him what items on the list he got finished and all I could get is “some of it”. I said ok, I will be there tomorrow and we can go over it. He said NO I NEED $10,000 NOW!!! ok, I paid him and never called him again.

    5. contractor #5 was hired to shingle a roof. Simple eh? Gave me a fixed price quote on the job and then at the end said, Oh, here is an invoice for an additional $8000.!!
    I said ok, here is a list of deficiencies and once that is resolved I will pay you a bit extra but not 8k. Then of course he gets aggressive and starts demanding.

    Of course probably none of these guys had proper insurance or workers comp etc.

    Hiring a contractor in the county is a disaster. The goog guys are booked 2 years ahead and the rest are doing this kind of thing.

  3. Rob #2 says:

    It would be interesting to know more details about these cases.

    My own experience with different County businesses/contractors has been varied but several are not delivering quite as I expected. Only speculating here, I do not know the charged individual or have ever done business with him, but is he simply taking on more than he can get done and as a result delaying things inevitably? Did he communicate his delays?

    My needs are generally not emergency, so I can and am willing to wait for some time. That has been the norm for me.

    But I also know of people who have told me that they call business owners in Belleville, Trenton or Napanee first thing, as they have had experiences with our local businesses that left them often waiting long periods of time for the initial visit and then for the work to actually commence and finally be completed. I do see what they mean.

    A little communication goes a long way when you have taken on too much to get done. When you promise to show up and don’t it leaves people not necessarily disliking you, but more disappointed than anything else. I could leave a list here but won’t. Be honest, if you can’t do it until September say so, and actually do it then. Come in mid-August and I’ll think that much more of you.

    Again all this is speculation about the above. I don’t think that this contractor wants this outcome – name in the news, charged, etc….but being in business, having a skill that people need and will pay good money for also carries with it a responsibility to communicate delays and be upfront if you can’t do something, to the point of giving the money back and recommending someone else.

    Up north we dealt with this too, as it was always hunting season, or fishing season or whatever…so what jobs contractors would take on tended to be put off until they had accommodated their own recreational needs. We just dealt with that reality, and laughed about it the way that people laugh about Police and donuts.

    There is a large Mennonite community just north of Belleville that has been doing a lot of work around the area. Those who have hired them report they are happy with the work and they show up when they say they will. Possibly that is something people might wish to consider.

    Similarly a very specialized local service that suffers a serious personal loss and closes down indefinitely should still reasonably be expected to communicate with their customers and the local community at large about their future plans for their service, particularly with the ease of Internet communication and Facebook.

    Not to be completely negative, I will report awesome personal experiences with Mark Heating, George’s Water and Robinson Pest Control standing out in my mind.

  4. Paul Cole says:

    The name of the contractor can be found here www
    .quintenews.com/2019/07/17/roofer-charged-with-fraud/

  5. Dennis Fox says:

    Knowing the name of the roofer might help people discover if they too were a target of this same person???

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