$83,000 In Construction Never Completed: Cops

EVANSTON, IL — A Chicago man is accused of never doing tens of thousands of dollars of repair work after being paid by an Evanston resident. Landis E. Beckett, Jr., 46, of the 1300 block of West Fargo Avenue in Chicago, was arrested Nov. 29 at 2:31 p.m. in the 1000 block of Monroe Street and charged with felony home repair fraud, according to police.

On Aug. 5, an 81-year-old Evanston resident told police he paid Beckett about $83,000 to complete repair work on two homes in town, police said.

The property owner told police he had hired Beckett in the past and given him the payment starting in the fall of 2016 – more than a year ago – but none of the work was ever done, he said.

The Evanston man told police he tried to contact Beckett and resolve the issue but was unable to, so the case ended up getting assigned to Evanston detectives.

Detectives conducted an investigation and presented the facts of the case to the felony review unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's office, who approved a single count of aggravated home repair fraud against Beckett, according to Evanston Police Cmdr. Joseph Dugan.

Beckett is listed as a manager of Axel Development LLC. He declined to comment when reached by phone Monday.

_{Top photo: Landis E. Beckett, Jr. booking photograph | Evanston PD}