Dive Brief:
- A Connecticut contractor, Pablo Miraballes, was sentenced to jail for two years and a day for stealing more than $36,000 from an elderly couple under the guise of helping them complete a renovation on their home.
- Homeowners John and Barbara Kayser fired the contractor they originally hired to do a bathroom renovation, and Miraballes, who had worked for the contractor, offered to help them finish the project. The Kaysers paid Miraballes more than $32,000 for work that grew from just a bathroom project to renovations in other areas of the home, but construction experts told police the work was substandard and should only have cost between $10,000 and $12,000.
- Miraballes, arrested in September 2010, pleaded guilty to a single count of first-degree larceny in May, and has been ordered to pay restitution to the Kaysers in the amount of $36,210.
Dive Insight:
According to the Stamford Advocate, Miraballes also borrowed money from the Kaysers, claiming it was for taxes, truck repairs, his mother's cancer treatments, vehicle insurance, and car and hospital loans, but Barbara Kayser, who was suffering from dementia, said she did not recall loaning Miraballes any money.
The couple’s son, John Kayser, Jr., said his parents were "frugal with every dollar" and that Miraballes had taken advantage of their kind natures and advanced age.
"You disgraced yourself," the son said during Miraballes’ sentencing, "and I am certain you embarrassed your family... You and you alone are responsible for the decisions you made, and I hope you take the steps necessary to straighten yourself out and become a better person."
The prison sentence comes less than a month after a Chesapeake, VA, contractor, pleaded guilty to felony construction fraud and was ordered to serve five years in prison after he failed to complete work he was paid to do.
