Rockville Centre Contractor Pleads Guilty to Charges in Home Improvement Scams: DA

A Rockville Centre contractor recently plead guilty on Wednesday to charges for home improvement scams in Long Island and Queens, according to the office of Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.

Derrick Burrell (also known as James Gray), 49, who worked under a company called “A Team Property Services,” was charged with two counts of second degree grand larceny and two counts of first degree scheme to defraud, according to the DA.

If convicted on July 20, he could face up to 4 and a half years in prison, the DA said.

Between February 2009 and July 2015, Burrell entered into contract with almost a dozen Queens and Long Island residents to do demolition, renovation and/or construction on their properties and accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in payment for these jobs, according to the DA.

In all cases, the work was never completed, leaving the residents with either unfinished projects or projects that were never started, the DA said.

"In one instance, a Queens homeowner who had become confined to a wheelchair had her kitchen completely demolished and for nearly a year has been forced to prepare her meals in the microwave or on a hotplate because her kitchen was never rebuilt," Brown said.

He was arrested in 2014 when he was owner and president of D&E Properties Management and Services based in Uniondale, after he was caught scamming over $250,000 from four homeowners, according to the DA.

He was charged with two counts of second degree misappropriation of funds of trust, two counts of second degree grand larceny, two counts of third degree misappropriation of funds of trust, two counts of third degree grand larceny and one count of second degree scheme to defraud, the DA said.

He was held on $3,000 bail and continued to scam residents under the name "James Gray."