OCA Busts Home Repair Fraud Ring

Today criminal investigators from the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA) arrested Marvin Dean Moore, Dusten Allen Moore, Edward Berger and Brent Roberts and charged them with racketeering for their alleged involvement in a home repair fraud scheme that conned elderly homeowners in Pickens, Cherokee, Cobb and Fulton counties out of over $480,000.

The OCA investigation, which began in November 2006, revealed that Marvin Dean Moore had scammed at least twelve Georgia victims, who ranged in age from 55 to 85 years old.  One of the suspects described how he and his associates would drive around neighborhoods looking for handicapped car tags, wheelchair ramps and other indicators that the homes belonged to seniors.  Marvin Dean Moore would then approach the subject with an offer to do some minor repair job, such as cleaning out the gutters or removing dead tree limbs.  He would sometimes allegedly present checks he’d received from the homeowner’s neighbors to establish himself as a credible, reliable worker. 

After Moore completed the initial repair job he would “discover” additional problems with the house that needed immediate repair.  In the case of an 82-year old Roswell resident, what started as a $15.00 gutter cleaning job evolved into a total of $168,000.00 in payments to Mr.  Moore. 

Not only would Moore overcharge for the repairs, but according to one of the suspects, Moore and his associates often fabricated or caused the alleged damages.  For example, Moore would carry around rotten wood and tell victims that the wood had come from their roofs, thus convincing them that their roof was in urgent need of replacement.  A suspect also alleged that Marvin Dean Moore had directed him and others to rip out roofing nails, pull off fascia board, and tear off shingles to create additional damage that the crew could then repair at exorbitant prices.  In the case of the Roswell homeowner, Moore allegedly gave one of his workers a $1,000 bonus to intentionally leave the tarp over the roof loose so that the impending rainstorm would cause additional damage to the home. 

Another Roswell victim had contact with Moore from 2003 to 2006.  In addition to conning her out of thousands of dollars in repairs to her home, Moore convinced her to front him some money for another large home improvement contract he claimed to have been given.  Between the loans and the work she contracted on her home, Marvin Dean Moore was paid nearly $270,000.00.  Needless to say, Moore never repaid the loans and much of the work to the victim’s home was never done. 

The investigation revealed that Marvin Dean Moore had a prior criminal history, having served four and half years in a Florida prison for exploitation of the elderly and two years in an Illinois prison for home repair fraud. 

The suspects are facing multiple charges including theft by deception, theft by conversion of payments for property improvements, and racketeering.  The case will be tried in Pickens County.  Bill Cloud of the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs told reporters, “Our goal is to prosecute these people as hard and as fast as we can and let them spend more time behind bars, because apparently the only way to stop their activity is to keep them in jail.”