A man who has been convicted of home improvement fraud against multiple families in central Indiana has again been charged with theft after a resident reported she paid him to install a pool, and the work was never done.
John R. Park, 53, of Franklin, was charged with theft and home improvement fraud — both felonies.
Park previously pleaded guilty to felony theft charges and served time in prison after local residents made similar reports, saying they paid him thousands of dollars to install pools at their homes and work was never done.
Local attorney Matt Solomon, who is representing Park, declined to comment on the case except to say that Park expects to be vindicated when all the facts come out.
Last year, a Greenwood woman hired Park, who said he worked for Project Solutions Specialists, to install a pool at her home. She paid him $7,500 for the contract and another $7,500 for the pool shell, according to the Greenwood Police Department report.
In March, the resident contacted police, saying the pool shell was never delivered, and Park could not be located, the report said. Investigators later found Park was in jail in Louisiana, a warrant was issued for his arrest and Park was booked into the Johnson County jail this week.
The woman’s story was similar to reports police took about Park more than a decade ago.
In 2004, prosecutors filed multiple charges against Park, including theft and home improvement fraud, after getting reports from at least five families that Park had bilked them out of $70,000.
All of the families reported they had hired Park to install pools at their homes, paid him — in some cases more than $10,000 — and work was either never started or left unfinished. When they tried to reach Park, they couldn’t, they reported to police.
At the time, Park, who owned Hoosier Pools in Franklin, said the cases were misunderstandings, and that he intended to do the work but had run into financial troubles with his business.
In 2008, Park pleaded guilty to three counts of theft and was sentenced to a year in prison, along with two years on probation. That sentence was combined into an 18-month sentence on three theft convictions in Hancock County, according to court records.
Park was also ordered to pay more than $37,000 in restitution to local families, according to court records.
In the most recent case, Park, 500 Center St., could face up to six years in prison under state law.
