A Missouri contractor has agreed to pay nearly $14,000 in restitution to Lincoln County residents for whom he did paving work in 2012. David S. Haney, 48, pleaded no contest to two theft counts in Lincoln County Circuit Court.
According to court records, Haney did paving work for several Lincoln County residents in the summer of 2012 under the business name Asphalt Paving. He would show up at their homes and offer to pave their driveways with blacktop that he said was left over from a road paving job. He would quote an attractive cost per yard, which varied from customer to customer. In all cases, the material used turned out to be asphalt millings, which is inferior to hot mix blacktop. He would present a bill to the homeowner after the work was completed. The bill was often much more than what the homeowner thought they had agreed to.
After the bill had been paid, Haney would write on the receipt that the material used was millings, and not hot mix. Some of the victims checked with reputable local contractors and found that they would have paid the same or less for the superior hot mix paving job.
In some cases, Haney did refund some of the customers’ money after they complained about the poor quality of the work.
After numerous complaints were investigated by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, the case was taken over by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). The DATCP investigation determined that Haney was targeting elderly homeowners as all the complainants were over the age of 62. DATCP referred the case to the Lincoln County District Attorney’s office for criminal charges, which included theft, theft by false representation and fraudulent writings.