'Operation Nailed': 20 Unlicensed Contractors Arrested As Part Of Multi-Agency Investigation

ST. PETERSBURG, FL - Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced Tuesday the arrest of 20 unlicensed contractors and 58 criminal charges as part of the multi-agency “Operation Nailed.” The sheriff said the two-month operation targeted unlicensed contractors who are “scamming innocent citizens and doing shoddy work or no work at all after receiving advance payment.” The investigation is ongoing and charges involve grand theft, unlicensed contracting and workers’ compensation fraud.

Gualtieri said the investigation was a “new day, a new era to stop predatory practices.” Deputies began arresting the contractors early Tuesday morning. The collaborative operation included the sheriff's office, Florida Department of Financial Services, Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board, Pinellas County Consumer Protection and the State Attorney's Office. The investigation targeted contractors in Pinellas County.

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The sheriff said unlicensed contractors had faced fines in the past, but that had not been a deterrent. He said the contractors had just considered it “the cost of doing business.”

“There is no more just paying a fine and moving on to another victim” he said. “The message to these people is stop it, knock it off.”

The sheriff said Darlene Anderson, 90, of St. Petersburg was one of the victims. Anderson said she was victimized a few months after her husband passed away at the end of March.

The sheriff said Richard Niger, 55, entered into a contract with Anderson for painting, plaster repair, and rescreening a pool enclosure. The contract was for $23,000 and the victim paid Niger $26,125 in several checks.

Niger told the victim that one of the checks she had given him, in the amount of $3,500, had been in his pocket when he washed his pants and the check had been destroyed in the washing machine. The victim provided another check, and Niger cashed both. Niger has not completed the work as he had agreed to in the contract, the sheriff's office said.

Niger was charged with grand theft of a person over 65, unlicensed specialty contracting and workers’ compensation fraud.

Image from Pinellas County Sheriff's Office