Home Repair Scammer Leaves Elderly California Couple Facing Foreclosure After $170K+ Ripoff

In Sacramento, California, The Scaramento Bee reports:

• The crook and one-time killer who bilked Patsy and Oliver Davis out of $172,000 is going to prison, and the elderly couple have since moved into a rebuilt home built with the muscle of area volunteers. But this isn't a story with a feel-good ending for the Davises. The retirees who found themselves ripped off in a contractor scam say the events of the past 3 1/2 years have turned their golden years into what Patsy Davis, 70, called a "nightmare." [...] She told The Bee on Friday that the couple are facing foreclosure on both their homes and that it looks like they're going to file for bankruptcy.

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• [Keith Lidell] McGowan swooped in on the Davises in July 2006 after city code inspectors cited them for their dilapidated rental on Nogales Street. They took a quick liking to him, after he gained Patsy Davis' sweet side by calling her "mother" and appealing to their spiritual bent "by reading scripture and praying with them," the probation report said. As for the wreck of a rental that had been torn inside out and down to its studs by a parade of bad tenants, McGowan told the Davises he could fix it up for $25,000.

• Three months into the job, he'd tagged them for $58,000 in costs. By October of 2007, they'd written him 57 checks for $252,650, according to the probation report. [...] The report said that experts who evaluated McGowan's work estimated that he did give the couple about $70,000 worth of value, leaving the final price tag on his rip-off at about $172,000.

For the story, see Con man gets prison; Sacramento couple he bilked face two foreclosures.