Unlicensed Massachusetts Contractor Pleads Guilty to Dozens of Charges

An unlicensed home improvement contractor who left an elderly woman’s home in ruins has pleaded guilty.

The Salem News reports that 49-year-old Jaime Ford’s guilty pleas Monday to 42 charges including larceny, forgery, insurance fraud, and being a common and notorious thief came a week before his trial was scheduled to start. He faces up to four years in prison at sentencing in January.

Prosecutors say he charmed a Beverly, Mass., octogenarian looking to update and expand her modest home and left behind a shell and piles of construction debris, including asbestos.

He also bilked an insurance company, which paid him worker’s compensation benefits and covered a $100,000 operation for injuries that he claimed he’d suffered while working for his brother’s demolition company.

Ford’s attorney declined to comment after the hearing.

Information from: The Salem (Mass.) News