GREENFIELD — A Noblesville contractor who appeared in a Hancock County court Wednesday to face a domestic development fraud fee said he plans to pay his customers back.
Call 6 Investigates first uncovered the business practices of Mark Sellers in May 2018 after RTV6 determined $110,000 in civil judgments in opposition to Sellers in Indiana relationship lower back to 2014.
Sellers is accused of taking cash from customers in imperative Indiana and now not completing the work. Call 6 Investigates met up with Sellers in March 2018 and he stated he become operating on paying people lower back.
“Yeah, thru the judgments we are able to,” Sellers stated. “I’m running on that.”
However, Sellers’ customers say they have no longer acquired any money from the contractor.
Following a Call 6 investigation, the Attorney General’s office filed a civil lawsuit towards Sellers in July 2018 accusing Sellers of deceptive practices, along with taking humans’s cash and no longer finishing the job.
On Feb. 22, Hamilton Superior Court Judge William Hughes granted a initial injunction in opposition to Sellers that prevents the contractor from soliciting or carrying out client transactions with out a settlement that follows the Indiana Home Improvement Contracts Act.
Call 6 Investigates Kara Kenney requested Sellers a few questions Wednesday on the Hancock County courthouse.
Kenney: Are you still operating as a contractor?
Sellers: I work for other agencies.
Kenney: Are you going to pay human beings again?
Sellers: That’s why I’m right here. I have to.
Sellers can still do construction work, but, he ought to entire any contracted paintings as agreed, according to the injunction.
Lisa Dunkel, a Greenfield property owner, stopped by means of court Wednesday to expose her help for Hancock County prosecutors who filed a domestic development fee against Sellers.
“Mark Sellers stole my cash,” Dunkel stated. “He stated he was going to construct a pole barn, and he didn’t show up. He lied about his cope with.”
Sellers’ contract with the Dunkels listed his enterprise as Indiana Choice Builders at 111172 Allisonville Road in Fishers.
But that address doesn’t exist, and there may be no Indiana Choice Builders registered as a business in Indiana, data show.
The Dunkels paid Sellers a $four,000 deposit at the pole barn, information display.
Prosecutors in Hancock County stated Sellers drilled holes and placed up poles, however didn’t degree nicely, so none of the lumber fit.
Plus, Sellers dug holes that needed to be pumped out because they were full of water, in keeping with the probably reason affidavit.
Court facts show Sellers made excuses for now not completing the activity, after which requested the Dunkels for an additional $2,500.
The Dunkels contacted Greenfield Police who investigated, and on Jan. 14, Hancock County prosecutors charged Sellers with domestic improvement fraud, a misdemeanor.
“I wish he can’t do that to every person else, and this is the motive of this entire thing,” Dunkel stated. “I want prosecutors to understand that I aid what they’re doing one hundred% due to the fact he doesn’t need to do that to human beings.”
Selleers faces as much as a 12 months in the back of bars and a $five,000 high-quality.
“I hope to get my cash lower back, however I need Indiana and Hancock County humans to know what he’s all about,” Dunkel stated. “He belongs in jail.”
No trial date has been scheduled but within the Hancock County home improvement fraud case.
The Boulder County District Attorney’s office sued Sellers in 2011 for low-balling customers by means of underbidding production initiatives, mispresenting his masonry paintings on his internet site , and for the usage of misleading change practices. They obtained a $32,084 judgment in opposition to Sellers.
Sellers mainly does concrete and masonry paintings.
