Langhorne Contractor Gets 16 Years For Defrauding Customers

An unlicensed Langhorne contractor who one client said left his yard looking like "a bomb exploded" has been sentenced to serve eight to 16 years in state prison after authorities say he bilked multiple homeowners out of more than $163,000. John New was also ordered to pay a total of $163,291 back to his victims.

New scammed 11 residents from three counties over the course of five years, the District Attorney's office said. Most of the victims were 60 or older and were customers of one of three unlicensed companies New created to defraud people, the District Attorney said.

"New typically stole from customers by signing a contract, collecting substantial down payments and failing to complete the work promised," the District Attorney's office said. In some cases victims had to pay thousands more to correct shoddy work by New.

New pleaded guilty in June to eight felony counts of receiving advance payment for services and failing to perform them. He also pleaded guilty to one count each of theft by deception and defrauding his insurance provider by obtaining coverage with false information.

The investigation into New began in August 2015.

Bucks County Detective Eric Landamia found that New had incorporated three different businesses for home improvement work. Only one was ever registered with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.

In addition to being unregistered, New operated without insurance since Oct. 2013.

Victims told the judge New destroyed their property, and stole years worth of savings from them.

“John New has stolen $17,000 from my family, destroyed our back yard, ruined our trust in people, and put us in (a) bad financial position that will impact my family for years into the future,” one victim, who hired New to install a new patio and deck, wrote in a letter to the judge.

New stole seven years of home-improvement savings, the victim wrote, and left his property unsafe and looking “like a bomb exploded in our back yard.”

According to the District Attorney's office, one couple wrote of how they hired New to renovate their bathroom to include a walk-in tub for their adult daughter, who has cerebral palsy. Instead, New “left us stranded with no tub, no toilet, and no sink,” just a shower that was not working," the couple, who wound up paying $19,295 for a project that was expected to cost less than $9,000, told the judge.

New’s punishment was the latest in a series of lengthy sentences imposed recently on fraudulent contractors by Bucks County judges.

The longest sentence given a contractor in Bucks County was imposed on John Succi of Yardley in February 2015. Succi was sent to state prison for 15 to 30 years for stealing $2.5 million from a dozen victims in one of Pennsylvania’s largest contractor-fraud cases, the District Attorney's office said.