Contractor Who Allegedly Fleeced Seven NJ Homeowners Out Of $75K Gets Bagged In Florida; Charged With Theft By Failure To Make Required Disposition Of Property Received

In Ocean County, New Jersey, the Asbury Park Press reports:

• A Clearwater, Florida, contractor is under arrest for allegedly bilking $75,000 in personal savings, insurance payments and federally funded home-repair grants, according to Ocean County officials.
  
  The prosecutor's office's Economic Crimes Unit charged 63-year-old Richard Woodard, part owner of the now-defunct Willwood Builders, with theft by failure to make required disposition,(1) Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato said. Woodard allegedly defrauded seven homeowners.
  
  In addition to taking his would-be clients' savings and insurance money, he also accepted payment in the form of state-administered Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) grants.
  
  The federally funded grants are meant to bridge the gap between insurance payments and the true cost of rebuilding storm-resistant homes.
  
  Willwood Builders never finished the work its clients had paid for, according to the announcement.
  
  Officers from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office arrested Woodard on Friar Tuck Lane in Dunedin, Florida, on Sept. 21, according to the announcement. Florida authorities held him on a $150,000 bail as Ocean County arranges for his extradition.

For the story, see Florida contractor charged with Ocean Co. ripoffs.

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(1) 2C:20-9, New Jersey Revised Statutes. Theft by failure to make required disposition of property received.

A person who purposely obtains or retains property upon agreement or subject to a known legal obligation to make specified payment or other disposition, whether from such property or its proceeds or from his own property to be reserved in equivalent amount, is guilty of theft if he deals with the property obtained as his own and fails to make the required payment or disposition. The foregoing applies notwithstanding that it may be impossible to identify particular property as belonging to the victim at the time of the actor's failure to make the required payment or disposition. [...]