By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau
KAILUA — A rock wall contractor operating without a license is under investigation for allegedly cheating at least 14 Kailua homeowners in construction scams totaling more than $30,000, police said.
The state Regulated Industries Complaints Office also is investigating, having received seven complaints concerning this contractor, said JoAnn Uchida, complaint and enforcement officer.
Homeowners began complaining last month that a rock wall builder had taken money to start a project and either never began or never finished the work, police said. All of the victims contacted by The Advertiser said the contractor approached them.
Police have been unable to locate the contractor, and ask that any other possible victims contact them.
Police do know that the contractor has been operating in Kalaheo Hillside since about December, an investigator said. Once the complaints began to come in, police said they treated the issue as a civil matter because the contractor would begin the job but not finish it. When people complained that the contractor took money but never started work, police began treating it as a criminal issue.
Ilimano Street resident Debra Evans said she lost $2,100 to the contractor, who promised to build two 50-foot walls, 6 feet high, for $2,500. The contractor asked for money up front, sent one person to dig the trench but never finished the wall, Evans said. The contractor eventually returned $400.
"It was a painful mistake; we’ll never do again," said Evans, adding that she and her husband were taken in by the contractor’s sincerity.
When the contractor first approached the couple, he wanted to trade the Evans’ boat for the rock walls, she said. They refused, but he kept pestering them, offering each time to drop the price, from $12,000 initially until they accepted, Evans said.
The contractor showed up in the neighborhood in December and completed one rock wall, said Cindy Siok. He then began soliciting more work, showing people his finished product, Siok said.
She contracted with him to build a turtle pond, and advanced him $2,500. After numerous delays and broken promises, Siok threatened to expose him. But when she approached a wall builder working with the contractor and told him she had contracted for a pond, she was told that the contractor and his partner did not do ponds, she said.
Eventually the contractor returned $100 and explained he had to send money home to Tonga, Siok said.
"Then you feel sorry for him, and we’re all human, so I let it go for a long time," Siok said.
Susan Forsyth gave the contractor $600 on a $900 project to build a 35-foot wall, 3 feet high. Like her neighbors, Forsyth said the contractor was sincere, friendly and reassuring. He didn’t try to hide and he kept telling people he would finish the work or return the money.
"He’s totally meek and super friendly," Forsyth said. "It would not occur to you that he would do this. I feel used and abused."
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