Noblesville contractor appears in courtroom on home improvement fraud fee

A Noblesville contractor who seemed in a Hancock County courtroom Wednesday to face a home development fraud price said he plans to pay his clients returned.
Call 6 Investigates first exposed the commercial enterprise practices of Mark Sellers in May 2018 after RTV6 determined $110,000 in civil judgments towards Sellers in Indiana dating lower back to 2014.
Sellers is accused of taking money from clients in crucial Indiana and now not finishing the paintings. Call 6 Investigates met up with Sellers in March 2018 and he said he turned into running on paying human beings back.
“Yeah, via the judgments we can,” Sellers stated. “I’m operating on that.”
However, Sellers’ clients say they have got no longer received any money from the contractor.
Following a Call 6 investigation, the Attorney General’s workplace filed a civil lawsuit towards Sellers in July 2018 accusing Sellers of misleading practices, such as taking human beings’ money and not completing the process.
On Feb. 22, Hamilton Superior Court Judge William Hughes granted a preliminary injunction in opposition to Sellers that prevents the contractor from soliciting or undertaking purchaser transactions without an agreement that follows the Indiana Home Improvement Contracts Act.
Call 6 Investigates Kara Kenney asked Sellers some questions Wednesday at the Hancock County courthouse.
Kenney: Are you still running as a contractor?
Sellers: I paintings for different corporations.
Kenney: Are you going to pay human beings returned?
Sellers: That’s why I’m right here. I must.
Sellers can nonetheless do construction work, but, he ought to whole any reduced in size work as agreed, consistent with the injunction.
Lisa Dunkel, a Greenfield homeowner, stopped by using court Wednesday to reveal her support for Hancock County prosecutors who filed a home development rate towards Sellers.
“Mark Sellers stole my cash,” Dunkel said. “He stated he changed into going to construct a pole barn, and he didn’t display up. He lied about his address.”
Sellers’ settlement with the Dunkels indexed his enterprise as Indiana Choice Builders at 111172 Allisonville Road in Fishers.
But that cope with doesn’t exist, and there may be no Indiana Choice Builders registered as a commercial enterprise in Indiana, statistics display.
The Dunkels paid Sellers a $4,000 deposit on the pole barn, statistics display.
Prosecutors in Hancock County said Sellers drilled holes and positioned up poles, but didn’t degree well, so not one of the lumber healthy.
Plus, Sellers dug holes that needed to be pumped out due to the fact they had been complete of water, according to the possible purpose affidavit.
Court statistics show Sellers made excuses for no longer finishing the job and then asked the Dunkels for a further $2,500.
The Dunkels contacted Greenfield Police who investigated, and on Jan. 14, Hancock County prosecutors charged Sellers with home development fraud, a misdemeanor.
“I wish he can’t do this to everybody else, and that is the cause of this complete aspect,” Dunkel stated. “I need prosecutors to recognize that I guide what they’re doing 100% due to the fact he doesn’t want to do that to people.”
Sellers faces as much as 12 months in the back of bars and a $5,000 high-quality.
“I hope to get my cash lower back, but I need Indiana and Hancock County humans to recognize what he’s all approximately,” Dunkel said. “He belongs in jail.”
No trial date has been scheduled yet within the Hancock County domestic improvement fraud case.