Man Pleads Guilty To Scamming Suffolk Homeowner Out Of $200K: DA

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — A man pleaded guilty to posing as a home improvement contractor and scamming a Huntington woman out of $200,000 of her retirement and savings funds, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced Friday.

Nicholas Spano, 59, was charged with second-degree attempted grand larceny. He pleaded guilty Wednesday and faces a two- to four-year sentence. He is due back in court Jan. 18.

“This defendant agreed to help the victim out with home repairs, but instead he exploited his position as a contractor to take advantage of the victim and steal her life savings,” Tierney stated in a news release. “He’ll now face sentencing where my office will seek state prison time to account for his crime. Let this be a lesson to anyone who would scam a homeowner. We will not stand for it.”

Spano admitted he exploited the woman from September 2019 to December 2020, prosecutors said. Spano was recommended by another contractor, and in September 2019 he gave an estimate for home improvement work on the woman's Huntington home, authorities said.

He gained the woman's trust and manipulated her into giving him money for different reasons, prosecutors said. His behavior escalated to the point that he made threats of violence against the woman, her family, and her associates, officials said. Spano continued his behavior for more than a year until the woman's retirement and savings accounts were depleted, authorities said.

When Suffolk County Police Department Second Precinct officers arrested Spano on April 24, he exclaimed, “She’s doing this because I took her for the money," investigators said.

Spano is being represented by John Halverson, Esq.