Long Island Man Faces Charges In Alleged $140K+ Home Improvement Ripoff Of 74-Year Old Queens Woman

From the Office of the Queens County, New York District Attorney:

• Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown [] announced that a Long Island contractor has been charged with bilking a 74-year-old Queens homeowner out of more than $140,000 that she paid him over two years ago for an extension to her residence that he never started.(1)

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• District Attorney Brown said that, according to the criminal charges, 74-year-old Lilian Miller retained [Ron] Scott to build an extension to her house located [...] in the St. Albans section of Queens on August 4, 2007. At the request of Scott, it is alleged that Ms. Miller gave him that day a bank check in the amount of $138,500 (from a line of credit she obtained against the equity in her home) and a personal check totaling $5,000. [...] It is further alleged that Scott failed to return or perform any work on Ms. Miller’s residence and that despite numerous attempts by Ms. Miller to contact him via mail, telephone calls and emails to recover her funds, she was unsuccessful.

For the entire Queens DA press release, see Long Island Contractor Charged With Stealing $140,000 from 74-Year-Old St. Albans' Woman.

(1) The defendant, identified as Ron Scott, 68, of West Islip, Long Island, faces a three-count criminal complaint charging him with second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal possession of stolen property and a violation of New York State Lien Law 79-A (misappropriation of funds of trust). If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.