{"id":74096,"date":"2019-08-23T18:25:30","date_gmt":"2019-08-24T00:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/roofer-who-scammed-dozens-sentenced-to-prison\/"},"modified":"2019-08-24T00:25:30","modified_gmt":"2019-08-24T00:25:30","slug":"roofer-who-scammed-dozens-sentenced-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/roofer-who-scammed-dozens-sentenced-to-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Roofer who scammed dozens sentenced to prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Frank
Frank Duffy outside of his Forest Lakes home in April 2016 that sustained roof damage in a hailstorm. Duffy fell victim to a roofing scam when he attempted to hire contractors to repair his roof.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A fraudulent roofer who scammed more than a dozen La Plata County residents out of thousands of dollars each was sentenced Thursday in Grand Junction to eight years in prison after being found guilty on seven counts of theft.<\/p>\n

A jury convicted George Harris of stealing more than $250,000 between June 2014 and May 2015 from 30 victims in La Plata County, Grand Junction, Montrose and Summit County. Harris\u2019 sentence requires him to return the more than quarter million dollars he took from the dozens of victims, according to the Colorado Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Many of Harris\u2019 victims were older and considered at-risk adults.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement said 16 would-be La Plata County customers paid a total of $138,551.93<\/a> to Harris\u2019 company \u2013 the Grand Junction-based East West Roofing LLC \u2013 between June and December 2014, according to a grand jury indictment.<\/p>\n

The supposed roofers gave homeowners estimates for repairing a roof and sought a deposit for the proposed work. La Plata County residents paid East West Roofing sums of a little more than $1,300 to more than $20,000 by check.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s Residential Roofing Bill of Rights requires roofing contractors to keep any deposits in a trust \u201cuntil materials have been ordered or a large portion of the contracted roof has been completed,\u201d according to a news release from the Colorado Attorney General\u2019s Office about Harris\u2019 sentencing.<\/p>\n

But the money never went into a trust; instead, it went into Harris\u2019 pocket.<\/p>\n

He used the money \u201cfor personal expenses, including multiple houses, frequent lavish meals and anti-aging procedures,\u201d law enforcement wrote in the release.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarris broke this law despite having full knowledge of its existence,\u201d according to the release. \u201cNumerous community members and victims, many of whom were older adults, explained (throughout court proceedings) how Harris harmed the Western Slope community.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Plata County resident Julia Hollingsworth said her parents, Marilyn, 74 at the time, and Frank, 85, of Bayfield, were scammed by Harris and taken for $15,892.59.<\/p>\n

Her parents were trusting, she said. Frank worked as an oil engineer and Marilyn was a stay-at-home mom. They needed repairs to the roof of their home in Forest Lakes subdivision north of Bayfield. The Hollingsworths provided a down payment to East West Roofing LLC. The roofers kept promising to bring materials to the home but never showed up, Hollingsworth said.<\/p>\n

At some point, the supposed roofer stopped answering their calls.<\/p>\n

Hollingsworth\u2019s parents have since died.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame my parents aren\u2019t here to see it,\u201d Hollingsworth said of Harris\u2019 sentencing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a big chunk of their savings that they had to take out to do the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hardest part for Hollingsworth, she said, was seeing her mother upset because she\u2019d been scammed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom said she felt stupid. That made me feel sad for her because she\u2019s not stupid. She is a very smart woman,\u201d Hollingsworth said. \u201c\u2026 It didn\u2019t affect me quite as personally, but it hurts for me to see my family hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bayfield residents Gerri and Frank Duffy were taken for $6,847.92<\/a>. Gerri has since died, and efforts to reach Frank on Thursday were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Junction man stole more than $250,000 from unsuspecting customers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,168,2822],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-crime","tag-justice-and-rights"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74096"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}