Dive Brief:
- Pennsylvania asphalt contractor Daniel Fry, conducting business as Fry Asphalt, has been barred by the state Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection from performing home improvement and paving work within the state and must pay $75,590 in fines and restitution, the York Dispatch reported.
- The AG’s office filed a lawsuit against Fry after receiving numerous complaints that he performed incomplete and inferior paving work, as well as engaged in questionable business practices. The AG’s office alleged that Fry also continued to work as a contractor after his Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act (HICPA) registration expired.
- Fry did not comment, according to the York Dispatch. Some customers reportedly went to the complaint site fryasphaltsucks.com to say his work was so bad that other contractors had to be hired to finish or repair Fry’s projects.
Dive Insight:
The AG’s office said that nearly $24,000 of what Fry must pay is restitution for substandard work. Officials also alleged that Fry performed extra work without a change order, used contracts that did not contain elements required under HICPA and took payment for work he never completed.
The end of last year saw a spate of contractors arrested or jailed for performing inferior work. Louisiana contractor Tanweer Bhatti was arrested for theft of assets of aged persons after many of his elderly residential customers filed police complaints alleging that he took their money and performed shoddy work. In another case in Connecticut, contractor Pablo Miraballes was sentenced to two years in jail for allegedly stealing $36,000 from an elderly couple while helping them with a renovation in their home.