(Memphis) A home improvement contractor accused of fraud and theft is in jail.
Police say William Scudder got paid to do work on an Arlington man’s home, but Scudder took the money and ran.
The Tennessee Department of Consumer Affairs got involved in the situation.
From Scudder’s website, it looks like a family-run business, one that does nice work on cabinets, but the S&S Custom Cabinets in real-life looks run down and closed down on Heistan Place in Midtown.
“When I showed up to the business, the lights were out, the grass was high in the front,” said Lincoln Harvey. “It didn’t look anything like the picture on the internet.”
Harvey says he didn’t find this out until after he paid Scudder $2,300 for cabinet work in his Arlington home.
“He never did show back up.”
That was back before Thanksgiving of last year.
Weeks, then months went by, and Harvey says Scudder didn’t do the work, wouldn’t answer the phone and would not prove that the cabinets were being made, even when Lincoln showed up at his business.
“He wouldn’t show me anything. He wouldn’t let me in the shop or let me see anything.”
Lincoln says he called police and filed a complaint with the Tennessee Department of Consumer Affairs.
“The reason why I didn’t let it go was the principle. I was thinking about the other people he had probably got.”
The state department says it wrote Scudder several times but received no response.
Police nabbed him Wednesday and charged him with both fraud and theft.
News Channel 3 gave Lincoln the news, almost a year to the date when he says he got scammed.
“That’s good. Maybe some of the other people he got money out of can get some gratitude out of that also.”
Lincoln says he’s learned to never pay someone upfront for work.
Scudder is in jail on a $20,000 bond.
