MILLINOCKET, Maine — Police expect to charge a Massachusetts contractor already facing charges in Lincoln with using illegal sales tactics for paving work done in town, but the charges won’t get residents what they most desire — restitution.
Millinocket police Detective Ron McCarthy said Monday that he expects to issue at least two summonses next month to Bituminous Paving, a contracting company out of Lowell, Mass., for failing to be properly licensed to work in Maine.
Bituminous Paving’s owner, 24-year-old William Stanley of Lowell, Mass., is due in Lincoln District Court on Aug. 4 to answer three Class E misdemeanor criminal charges. He was charged on June 18 with violating the Door-to-Door Home Repair Sellers Act, the Consumer Soliciting Sales Act and the Transient Sales Act, Lincoln police have said.
Lincoln police “did an excellent job,” McCarthy said Monday. “We will do the same, but unfortunately that won’t help the residents here.”
Although his research is continuing, McCarthy’s consultation with the District Attorney’s Office in Bangor showed that no criminal charges exist that could get residents restitution for what McCarthy termed subpar work done on their driveways.
“That is a civil matter,” McCarthy said. “As far as I can tell, there is no charge for failing to do the driveway properly, at the moment.”
One Millinocket man, Gilbert Bouchard, said he and six other residents of Iron Bridge Road had their driveways paved by Bituminous for about $3,000 each a month ago, but the quality of work appears poor.
Lincoln police charged Stanley after they found him at a Lee Road residence arguing with a business owner over Stanley’s alleged attempt to raise the price to $4,500 for some pothole filling in a parking lot. The homeowner argued successfully that the price should be lowered to $1,000, police said. Another business already had paid $4,500 for paving.
Lincoln Police Chief William Flagg and Lincoln Town Manager Lisa Goodwin said that Bituminous Paving is a “gypsy paving crew” that falsely claimed to be working for the town as part of a common scam in which victims are conned into believing they are getting a good deal on asphalt left over from another job — in this case, work done for the town.
But the work done is poor and the lure used to get the work is illegal, Flagg said.
In an interview on June 25, Stanley denied having done any work in Millinocket over the last several weeks or taking advantage of anyone. The charges Lincoln police filed against him were the result of a misunderstanding, he said.
Stanley said he was unaware that under state law, contractors must be state-registered, provide written contracts and estimates of work, and allow a three-day grace period in which customers may cancel the signed contracts before work can begin.
Stanley admitted that he provided none of these things to a Lincoln business whose parking lot he paved. He said the lack of a written contract was attributable to his brother-in-law’s having negotiated the deal as a verbal agreement and that he has since fired his brother-in-law.
“I am not going to lie to you. I was ignorant. I didn’t know the law,” Stanley said during the interview. “I am taking care of this now. If I was a deadbeat, would you be able to get a hold of me?”
McCarthy is aware of six or seven driveways done poorly in Millinocket by Bituminous but has only two counts to file against the company because only two residents are pursuing charges, he said. He encouraged residents who believe they have been scammed by Bituminous to call police at 723-9731 to pursue charges.
Residents also should contact the Maine Attorney General’s Office at 800-436-2131 or the Better Business Bureau for Eastern Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont at boston.bbb.org to file complaints or pursue complaints already made.