CHATSWORTH : Man Sentenced for Contracting Violation
An Encino man who pleaded no contest to charges involving swindling several elderly residents of a Chatsworth mobile-home park has been sentenced to 120 days in jail, the city attorney’s office said Friday.
Randy Freedman, 35, was charged along with another man of taking down payments for contracting work, then not completing the work and failing to refund the victims’ money, the city attorney’s office said.
After Freedman pleaded no contest to contracting without a license Thursday, Van Nuys Municipal Court Commissioner Mitchell Block also sentenced him to three years probation. Block ordered restitution to be determined at a March 16 hearing.
Stewart Weinshank, 34, also of Encino, pleaded not guilty to charges he failed to comply with a citation issued by the Contractor’s State License Board, working as an unlicensed contractor and three counts of grand theft, according to the city attorney’s office.
Four of the victims told investigators that they hired the men for projects such as building front-porch steps, repairing a porch, furnace and water-heater repairs and installation of a new door. The fifth victim, a Van Nuys man, told police he hired Freedman and Weinshank to do a commercial project.
The victims paid the men between $550 and $2,274 for a total of $5,210, the city attorney’s office said.
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