East Providence Police arrest two on scam charges

Posted 8/1/15

EAST PROVIDENCE — East Providence Police have arrested two Providence men for attempting to bilk unsuspecting senior citizens.

Police announced the arrests of Anthony A. Williams, 32, and David Johnson, 33, of 930 Chalkstone Ave. …

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East Providence Police arrest two on scam charges

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — East Providence Police have arrested two Providence men for attempting to bilk unsuspecting senior citizens.

Police announced the arrests of Anthony A. Williams, 32, and David Johnson, 33, of 930 Chalkstone Ave. Providence, for the charges of Exploitation of Elders and Conspiracy.

On July 29, a family member of an elderly Byron Avenue resident reported to police she believed her father was the victim of a home repair scam. On July 30, members of the EPPD Detective Division in cooperation with the City Building Inspector’s Office and an investigator from the Rhode Island Contractors’ and Licensing Board, initiated an investigation.

The initial complaint stated that two males, later identified as Williams and Johnson, solicited the resident about doing driveway repairs at his home. After allegedly doing repairs to the driveway and some exterior portions of the resident’s home, Messrs. Williams and Johnson convinced the resident that he needed more work on his house, both to the exterior as well as the interior.

Messrs. Williams and Johnson would do minor work and then inform the resident that he needed to make payment to them for the work they did. They would give the resident an itemized bill at the time payment was required.  In the course of three days, Messrs. Williams and Johnson received multiple checks from the resident totaling more than $30,000. in alleged repairs.

Both inspectors examined the alleged work and found that much of the work that was documented in the billing was never done and of the work that was done, both inspectors believed the work to by very substandard and would require new work to be done to correct the new alleged work.

Based on the investigation arrest warrants were signed for Messrs. Williams, Johnson and a third suspect who is still being sought, for Elderly Exploitation and Conspiracy. Messrs. Williams and Johnson were taken into custody in the Byron Street neighborhood after attempting to return to the resident’s home to solicit more work.

The East Providence Police Department urges anyone who may have had these suspects do work for them to contact their local police department if they felt they were scammed.

driveway scam, East Providence Police, elderly

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