Vladimir Lesnik uses a level to determine that one side of a new driveway installed at his Barbara Street home by an out-of-state contractor is more than four inches lower than the center. (Photo ©2013 Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – Members of an extended New Hampshire family infamous in some circles for a paving scam were escorted from the city Tuesday evening and encouraged to ply their trade elsewhere after residents complained about their work.
The family’s paving company, currently doing business as W. Richards, came to the attention of city police Tuesday when a Rogers Avenue resident called to complain about a paving contractor.
Det. Sgt. Stephen K. Dickinson said that the complainant had learned that company representatives were expected to be coming to collect payment from a neighbor Tuesday afternoon and he was waiting for them when they arrived at Vladimir Lesnik’s house.
Lesnik said, in a driveway interview Wednesday, that he had learned of the company when they offered to work on his employer’s driveway and called them to resurface and widen his driveway.
He said that he called for an estimate about 4:30 p.m. Monday and, by 5 p.m., a crew was at his house ready to work.
He said that the contractor promised he would be happy with their work and said his driveway would be “nice” when they finished.
He said that after he agreed to hire them, the crew went to work immediately and returned at 7 a.m. the next day to finish up.
Apparently, a member of the crew also sought additional work in the neighborhood.
A Rogers Avenue resident said that someone came to her door as she was getting ready to leave for a meeting who said that his paving company had been doing a job for a neighbor and had surplus asphalt which would go to waste if it was not used promptly so he could offer her a good price to repair her driveway.
That woman said, during a telephone interview Wednesday morning, that she called police because “there were too many red flags going up” and she had researched the contractor on the Internet.
She said that she found a story from a newspaper in Batavia, New York, which named the person she was dealing with, Joshua Stanley, and described a scenario much like she had encountered.
The woman said that, like the situation described in newspaper articles she read online, the price of the job changed after the workers started.
She said that the crew arrived very promptly and seemed to be very professional but said she found, “It is a scam. They’re very good at what they do,” she said.
She said that when she came home after the job was completed it was dark so she couldn’t carefully examine the work until the next day.
Then, she found the job to be shoddy.
“Everybody who looked at it said it isn’t going to last,” she said.
Lesnik said that somebody from the company called him seeking payment Tuesday but he insisted on seeing their work before he paid them.
When he came home for work and examined his driveway, he said that the company had not made him happy.
He said that the brand new driveway was neither flat nor level.
“They didn’t prep it at all” he said pointing out that the new driveway is lower than his yard because the workers did not build up the subsurface with the result that one side of his driveway is a full four and a half inches lower than the other side, and lower than the yard next to it.
In addition, he said, because there was no preparation, he predicts the driveway will sink during the summer and the new asphalt will not last. “The first winter, all of this stuff will come out” he said, toeing crumbling asphalt from the interface with the road which the workers had covered with soil.
“This is a good job like they promised,” he said sarcastically.
Because the company had not fulfilled their promise to make him happy, he said, he refused to pay them.
He said that he would have no problem paying for the job he was promised but he won’t pay for a job which he will have to repair somehow, at an unknown additional cost.
He said that, with police on the scene, the company representative did not press him for payment.
Dickinson said that a legitimate contractor would have pursued payment options but the fact that the crew in question didn’t indicates their underhanded nature.
Lesnik said, however, that somebody called him the next day looking for $1,500 “to pay for the materials” and, when he refused, threatened to return and remove the asphalt they had laid down.
He said he told the caller that he would call police “as soon as they showed up.”
Police Captain Michael McCabe said that the family running what he referred to as “a classic gypsy scam” is well known.
“This is the George Stanley clan which has been running the paving scam since the ‘70s” he said, “I’ve known them my entire career.”
He said that the so-called pavers approach homeowners, who may have been targeted because of their age, and claim they have leftover asphalt they’d like to use up.
“Older folks are usually intimidated by them and they pay them the money and then they’re embarrassed and don’t report it,” he said.
But the Rogers Avenue victim did report it.
“I couldn’t believe I got sucked in like that” the woman said and also said that, when she had time to think about it, she realized that she had heard of the scam years ago.
She said that the only paperwork she had received was a business card so she might not have been able to contact them again. However, the pavers were due to return to her neighbor’s house so she was able to find them again.
She said that they did refund a portion of what she had paid them and said that they told her they “didn’t want any trouble.”
She said “He (her neighbor) lucked out because he hadn’t paid them” she said but said that she isn’t satisfied with the work done on her driveway either.
Lesnik said that the company looks very professional with good equipment and a large crew.
“Everything looks good except the labor they provide,” he said.
The Rogers Avenue resident said that she will seek a local contractor to properly repair her driveway and Lesnik said that he will be calling local reputable paving companies to see how he can repair the shoddy job.
McCabe agreed that it is wise to use only a locally known contractor.
“The moral of the story is, unless you’ve specifically contracted with somebody beforehand, don’t get involved” with discount paving offers he said.
Dickinson had a more direct response.
He said that he escorted the crew to the turnpike and encouraged them to stay away from Westfield.
