An unlicensed building contractor with a long history of swindling homeowners by taking payments and not doing the work is facing new charges. This time he is accused of trying to bilk a Vero homeowner out of more than $10,000.
Richard Roy Bohlen, 52, has been in jail since June 6 for violating probation he received after entering a ‘no contest’ plea to Third Degree Grand Theft in May 2017 in a similar case. He was charged in September for the most recent incident.
Bohlen was first arrested in 2015 for allegedly cheating homeowners. According to police reports, Vero Beach resident Jennifer Rotondo hired Bohlen and paid him a total of $16,800 to remodel her kitchen. After demolishing the kitchen and removing the granite countertops – which he said he was donating to someone in need – Bohlen never returned to do any more work.
Bohlen entered a ‘no contest’ plea in that case and was sentenced in May 2017 to two days in jail and put on probation for 60 months.
Five months later, in October 2017, Charles Salemme hired Bohlen to repair his roof, which was damaged by Hurricane Irma, according to an affidavit from the Vero Beach Police Department. Salemme, who hired Bohlen after seeing an ad on Craigslist, told police he paid Bohlen $10,560, but no work was ever done.
Then, on Jan. 16 of this year, Neena Madan of Windermere, Florida, reported to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office that she had paid $1,344 to Bohlen to replace wooden siding on a Vero Beach house she is renovating. The work was never completed, Madan told investigators.
Bohlen was jailed in June when charges were brought in this case. He later entered a not guilty plea and the case is still pending.
