Home Improvement Contractor Gets Jail Time For Fleecing Four 80+ Year Old Homeowners (Including One With Alzheimers') Out Of $40K+; Probe Triggered By Initial Review, Subsequent Complaint Filed By Local Social Services Agency Serving The Elderly

In Honesdale, Pennsylvania, the Wayne Independent reports:

• Texas Township business Borsdam's Plumbing and Electrical Services is “effectively dead” after its co-owner was sent to jail [] for home-improvement fraud.
  
  Wheelchair-bound David Borsdam, 70, of Honesdale, was sentenced to spend 20 days to five years, less one day, in Wayne County jail in connection with him scamming four elderly victims out of thousands of dollars. The defendant also cannot ever again work in the home-improvement business.
  
  President Judge Raymond Hamill said the case was not an instance of simply a businessman overcharging customers, but an intentional act to defraud “vulnerable” victims. “This is a criminal, a criminal, act,” the judge emphasized during the sentencing hearing.
  
  Borsdam could have been sentenced to between nine months and seven years in prison, but the judge said he was imposing a lighter term due to the defendant's frail health.
  
  Borsdam in July pleaded no contest to the felony charge. A defendant who pleads no contest doesn't admit guilt but concedes there is enough evidence for a conviction.
  
  He and his wife and co-defendant, Betty Jane Borsdam, also must pay $41,400 in restitution to the victims.
  
  Betty Borsdam, 70, also of Honesdale, was earlier placed in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, which allows non-violent, first-time offenders to have charges dismissed if they complete a probationary period.
  
  Defense lawyer Richard Henry told the court, “Effectively the (Borsdams') corporation is dead.”
  
  The investigation into the business at 1903 Roosevelt Highway began in 2015, when the Wayne County Area Agency on Aging reported to police the financial exploitation of several elderly residents.
  
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  The victims were all in their mid- to late 80s at the time of the crimes, one of whom suffers from Alzheimer's disease and was forced into an assisted living facility after being scammed.
  
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  In one instance, the aging agency gave state police 15 contracts for work completed by Borsdam's at the Texas Township residence of an 81-year-old woman who paid the company $64,697 between October 2014 and July 2015.
  
  A certified inspector with the aging office reviewed the Borsdam's work and said the prices were “extremely high and the homeowner was taken advantage of,” according to court papers.
  
  In another incident, police investigated work performed by Borsdam on a leaking toilet at the High Street residence of a senior citizen.
  
  Borsdam submitted an initial proposal for $2,736, but later said more work needed to be done for approximately $18,891, according to court papers.
  
  An acquaintance of the victim, suspicious of the price jump, contacted Jim Miller Plumbing & Heating. Miller found much of the work to be unnecessary.
  
  Documents prepared by Betty Borsdam revealed the victim was “grossly overcharged, man hours were exaggerated” and materials were marked-up in excess of industry standards, police said.
  
  Also, a review of checks used by some of the victim indicated the checks were only signed by the victim but made out by and to David Borsdam, police said.

Source: Borsdam gets jail term for fraud.