Home Improvement Contractor Pleads Guilty In Scam That Bilked 11 Homeowners Out Of Hundred$ Of Thousand$ While Leaving Behind Trail Of Unfinished Renovation Projects

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

• Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown [] announced that a 49-year-old Long Island contractor has pleaded guilty to grand larceny and other charges for home improvement scams perpetrated on Queens and Long Island residents.
  
  District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has pleaded guilty to having defrauded homeowners out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by taking money for construction and renovation work and leaving behind a trail of unfinished renovation projects. In one instance, a Queens homeowner who had become confined to a wheelchair had her kitchen completely demolished and for nearly a year has been forced to prepare her meals in the microwave or on a hotplate because her kitchen was never rebuilt.”
  
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  The District Attorney identified the defendant as Derrick Burrell (also known as James Gray), 49, of Saint Marks Avenue in Rockville Centre, Long Island. Burrell, who worked under the name of a company called “A Team Property Services,” pleaded guilty [] to two counts of second degree grand larceny and two counts of first-degree scheme to defraud before Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron who indicated that he would sentence the defendant to an indeterminate term of 1½ to 4½ years in prison at sentencing on July 20, 2016.
  
  District Attorney Brown said that, according to court documents, Burrell entered into contract with nearly a dozen Queens and Long Island residents to do demolition, renovation and/or construction on their properties between February, 2009 and July, 2015 and accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in payment. In all cases, the work was never completed, leaving the residents with either unfinished projects or projects that were never started.

Source: General Contractor Pleads Guilty To Bilking 11 Homeowners In Renovation Scams (Defendant Faces 1 ½ to 4 ½ Years In Prison At Sentencing).