Dive Brief:

• New Jersey has slapped a Rutherford remodeler with a $6.3 million fine and barred him from working in the home-improvement industry.

• The unusually high penalty, the result of a default judgment in Bergen County Superior Court, stemmed from 571 violations of consumer protection laws. The contractor, Anthony Pizza, owned two home-improvement companies that customers accused of leaving work unfinished, refusing to refund their money, and damaging their homes.

• The judgment includes $5.7 million in civil penalties, $585,395 in customer restitution, and approximately $40,000 in attorneys’ fees.

Dive Insight:

Bergen County newspaper The Record reported that the judgment is the state's second-largest in six years. In 2012, a county roofer accused of similar lapses was banned from doing business in New Jersey and fined $7.5 million.

Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman called Pizza an “unscrupulous contractor” and said the state intends to seize and liquidate his assets to repay the customers he bilked.