Repair Scams In The Big Easy

Five men have been arrested on charges they bilked New Orleans residents out of thousands of dollars by contracting to renovate houses and failing to do so.

The five suspects were identified by the attorney general's office, which provided this information:

-- Anthony Thomas was arrested Oct. 25 and booked with one count of felony theft, one count of acting as a contractor without a license and one count of theft from an elderly or disabled person. Thomas, owner of Thomas Dry Wall, is alleged to have accepted a down payment of $52,000 as part of a contract with a resident to renovate her home, and to have abandoned the job without fulfilling the contract.

-- Garlon D. Batiste, aka Lance Howard, doing business as Premier Global Renovations, was arrested Oct. 24 and booked with two counts of theft by fraud, two counts of injuring public records, exploitation of the infirmed, and providing false information during the booking process. He is alleged to have accepted a check from a New Orleans resident for $38,054.74, to be used for labor and materials for the victim's house renovations, and never returned to perform any work on the house. In a separate incident, he is accused of taking an $8,500 check from a disabled senior to renovate the victim's hurricane-damaged home, and never returning to perform any repairs.

-- Michael Noah, doing business as JDSM Enterprises, was arrested in LaPlace and was returned to Orleans Parish Prison on Oct. 24, where he was booked with one count of felony theft and one count of doing contracting work without a license. Noah is charged with accepting a $42,250 partial payment on a contract to restore a hurricane-damaged New Orleans home before abandoning the project without performing the required work.

-- Dennis M. Alexander was arrested Oct. 25 and booked with four counts each of felony theft of property valued over $500, operating as a construction contractor without a license, and theft from an elderly or disabled person. Alexander allegedly was paid down payments of between $5,000 and $46,500 by four New Orleans residents to renovate houses, and did not fulfill the contracts, the attorney general's office said.

-- Billy Myers of Cresson, Texas, doing business as Customers Choice Construction, was arrested Oct. 18 and booked with theft by fraud in contracting, misapplication of payments, engaging in a business without a license and exploitation of the infirmed. Myers allegedly contracted with an elderly New Orleans resident to make renovations to the victim's two hurricane-damaged homes and accepted a check in advance for $10,000. After allegedly performing only $1,000 worth of work, he failed to complete the job and reneged on a promise to refund the other $9,000 by leaving for Texas, Foti's office said.

This is a sad situation when other people's misery brings out the worst in people.
There is always some corrupt individual, lurking in the background, waiting to prey on others. We need to severely punish these indivduals in order to discourage this type of disgusting behavior.