Trio Get Bagged For Allegedly Bilking Elderly Homeowner Out Of Over $80K For Home Improvement Work That Was Never Started Or Completed

In Joplin, Missouri, The Joplin Globe reports:

• Three defendants accused of bilking an elderly Carl Junction man out of more than $80,000 on nonexistent home repairs have been ordered bound over for trial.
  
  Torrey E. Rickey, John W. Rickey Jr. and Troy L. Slankard were scheduled for preliminary hearings Thursday in Jasper County Circuit Court on charges of financial exploitation of the elderly.
  
  John Rickey Jr., 59, of rural Carl Junction, and Slankard, 58, of Galena, Kansas, waived their hearings and were ordered bound over for trial by Associate Circuit Judge Joe Hensley.
  
  John Rickey and Torrey Rickey face two counts each of financial exploitation of the elderly, with second alleged victims in addition to the Carl Junction man. Slankard faces a single count involving just the Carl Junction man.
  
  Torrey Rickey was ordered bound over for trial after a preliminary hearing at which the Carl Junction man testified that a crew of about six men had come to his home to perform some remodeling over a period of several days in September 2015. He testified that he made several payments to them, including two checks made out to a “Torrey Rickey” that had been cashed at his bank.
  
  The man was unable to identify the defendant as one of the men who bilked him, although he believes he would be able to identify a couple of them on sight. He could not recall which of the men told him to make the checks payable to “Torrey Rickey.”
  
  Assistant Prosecutor Will Lynch called Carl Junction police Officer Doug Dickey to testify that he was able to identify Torrey Rickey on bank surveillance video as the man who cashed the checks. Dickey said he was able to identify him by comparison with the photo on the defendant’s driver’s license.
  
  Dickey said he determined that the Carl Junction man had paid the men over $80,000, but he was unable to detect any signs of recent remodeling actually done in his home.
  
  The sister of a deceased elderly Joplin woman identified Torrey Rickey in court as one of the men who swindled her sister in a home improvements scam in April 2016. Authorities said she was cheated out of more than $7,500.

Source: Three men to stand trial in home repair swindles.