A New Rochelle contractor on the county”™s Renegade Renovators list has been charged with stealing from a customer.
Michael Scoca, 52, New Rochelle, was charged on May 7 with three counts of grand larceny and three counts of identity theft.
Scoca told a Bronx family that he was a licensed contractor, according to the Westchester County District Attorney, and would build them a house.
He persuaded the family to provide him with five credit cards to pay for materials and construction costs.
Instead, prosecutor Anthony A. Scarpino Jr. said in a news release, Scoca stole $79,000 for personal expenses and unrelated business expenses, using the clients”™ personal information and credit card numbers.
He allegedly diverted money to pay fees at a New Rochelle yacht club, buy precious metal coins and acquire thousands of dollars of items from retail stores.
The district attorney did not identify the victims in the news release and redacted their names in a copy of the indictments.
Scoca pleaded not guilty in New Rochelle City Court.
Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful. Two telephones listed to his companies, West End Contractors and West End Construction Management, were not operable and no one answered a third line.
Scoca was also charged with grand larceny last August in Rockland County. He was accused of stealing $26,000 from a Stony Point couple who hired him to remodel their kitchen. He demolished the kitchen and installed Sheetrock, the district attorney charged, but then abandoned the project.
The couple, Ravi and Anhtho Kashyap, sued him in Westchester Supreme Court for $35,000, claiming he damaged their home and performed work in a deficient manner.
Also last year, Arben Morina accused Scoca of filing an invalid mechanic’s lien. Morina hired Scoca to build a house in Eastchester for $345,000 and had paid him $126,990 for work.
Scoca filed a mechanic’s lien for $545,000, allegedly failing to properly notify Morina and using false information. Morina was left only with a “hole in the ground,” dug by a subcontractor.
In 2001, Scoca was charged in Westchester with insurance fraud and grand larceny, for which he sentenced to five years probation.
In 2004, he was charged with grand larceny, insurance fraud, workers compensation fraud and possession of stolen property. He was sentenced to a year in jail.
According to the county”™s Renegade Renovators list, Scoca also does business as SCG 24/7 Construction, Scoca Construction Corp. and Scoca General Contracting.
Contractors qualify for the Renegade distinction by being a continual source of many consumer complaints.
“Consumers,” according to the county Consumer Protection Department, “should not use these contractors.”
