Police: Niantic Man Investigated For 'Contractor Fraud,' Charged

EAST LYME, CT — On at least two occasions last winter and spring 43-year-old Jeremy Seidel of Niantic is alleged to have defrauded people when contracted to do home repairs, court records show. One of the families he's accused of ripping off had a deployed dad and pregnant mom, the arrest warrant shows.

East Lyme Police charged Seidel of 13 Osprey Lane after he turned himself in to cops on an active warrant. Police had been investigating Seidel related to home improvements he'd been hired to complete in March and May of 2019, records show.

But it turns out that not only is Seidel's contractor's license expired, and has been since 2014, state consumer protection agency investigators had dealt with him before. But the homeowners he's accused of defrauding had no idea about Seidel's background.

According to the arrest warrants provided by police, in the March 1 case, he's facing seven misdemeanor charges and second-degree reckless endangerment, court records show.

This case actually began in the fall of 2018 when a family, military dad soon to be deployed, pregnant mom and young daughter, needed electrical work done and a basement prepared in advance of an anticipated December birth. They hired Seidel, who they were turned on to via an online community forum. The arrest affidavit spells out the details of a months-long dragging out of the project, often when the pregnant mom was home alone with the father deployed, where Seidel comes and goes, does shoddy work and has the family pay him in cash to avoid paying taxes. They paid him $11,000 in a number of cash payments. By March, they fired him. And the work was not only incorrect and incomplete, the town inspected it and found "significant" code violations and and serious safety hazards some that could have led to "fire and/or injury."

In the May 19 case, Seidel is facing six misdemeanor charges, according to judicial records.

According to the arrest warrants provided by police, in the May case, he agreed to rebuild a deck for an East Lyme family for around $19,000 - he said he'd not charge sales tax as the homeowners would pay for materials. They signed a contract and he said he'd have the deck work completed by Memorial Day. That never happened and by early June, the homeowners had paid Seidel more than $12,000. But, the warrant reads, the work that was done was shoddy at best and dangerous at worst as the family have a very young child who could have been injured.

Once police began investigating, Seidel said that he didn't need a state contractor license as he had a "federal" one. There's no such thing, cops say.

The charges are: home improvements without proper registration; failure to provide oral notice of cancellation; failure to provide notification of cancellation; contract did not contain registration number; failure to provide duplicate notice of cancellation; and contract did not contain start/completion date.

In the related cases, police said he was immediately held on $25,000 cash/surety bond. He's due in court Dec. 20.

In July, Seidel was arrested a number of times, according to the Connecticut judiciary.

On July 4, he was pulled over by East Lyme cops and was cited for having less than half an ounce of marijuana and paraphernalia and was issued a motor vehicle infraction. On July 5, he was arrested by East Lyme police on charges of third-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace. He bonded out on $1000 non-surety bail. Then, on July 17, he was arrested by Waterford Police for violation of a protective order, a felony. He was released on a $10,000 bond.

He's due in court on these cases Nov. 21.

Editor's note: Police and state officials were investigating Seidel for contractor fraud and that is what led to him being charged.