CORDOVA, Tenn. –A 72-year-old Cordova man learned he may spend the rest of this life in prison for swindling contractors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
John Fisher was living in a million dollar mansion on Oak Knoll Cove he never paid for.
He also made more than $200,000 in upgrades he never paid for.
He pleaded guilty to eight felony theft charges back in November.
Since then he’s been been attempting to be on probation rather than serve prison time.
However a judge recently decided Fisher must serve 10 years in prison.
On Tuesday the 8,000 square foot home Fisher lived in was empty.
Neighbors WREG spoke with said they’ve heard of problems with Fisher for years.
WREG tracked down several victims of Fisher’s who said they’re glad he’s being he accountable.
“We are a small company and we all eat off our work that we here. It was a very tough period of time,” said Chuck Taylor, the general manager of Lane Music Company.
His company was one of the many that fell victim to Fisher.
They delivered a piano to this house after he was supposed to purchase it.
“The piano was a Shigeru Kawai which is a beautiful one of a kind, exotic wood finish piano that he made all kinds of modifications to,” explained Taylor.
Modifications that racked him up a bill of $70,000.
A penny was never paid toward the piano.
His company was not alone.
The Shelby County DA’s office said Fisher never paid a roofing company, gate company, swimming pool company, electrical company and many others.
Fisher told the companies he made his money on construction projects he did for the CIA.
“He just took companies that went on people’s words and he took advantage,” said Taylor.
Thankfully Lane Music was able to get their piano back.
But Fisher didn’t just target companies.
He even swindled the owner of the home he lived in.
Since 2004 he promised he would close on the sale, but never did.
Today a message WREG left for the owner, a Collierville doctor, was never returned.
This wasn’t WREG’s first time reporting on the crook.
Back in 2013 he was arrested along with wife for writing bad checks.
But now it looks like Fisher won’t be writing any checks anytime soon.
Fisher has also been ordered to pay nearly $260,000 in restitution to the victims.
