Contractors targeted in Sylmar sting

Two men were arrested and seven others detained this week in an undercover sting operation targeting unlicensed contractors in Los Angeles neighborhoods devastated by wildfire, authorities said.

Ever since the Sayre fire raged across 11,244 acres last month, devouring more than 500 Sylmar homes and leaving 15 others damaged, scores of contractors and other vendors have flooded the neighborhoods, promising to rebuild houses, landscape lawns and provide other services funded by insurance payouts.

The sting was staged Wednesday out of two Sylmar homes about a mile apart and was aimed at separating the contractors who work legally from those who don’t. It was the first such operation since the fires, and state licensing and insurance officials say there will be many more.

“This is a positive thing for the community,” said Michael Ingram, a bureau chief for the California Department of Insurance’s fraud division. “I think what we’re going to find is it’s going to eradicate, to a certain extent, this kind of activity in the area.”

Resident Peter Mahnke said that just days after the fire, trucks began to circle his street while contractors handed out business cards and fliers and chatted up homeowners. Telephone poles were plastered with ads, and Mahnke said he collected a stack of leaflets and business cards about 10 inches high.

“This was like a Disneyland roundy-round,” said Mahnke, 66, who has lived at the bottom of a cul-de-sac on Pickadilly Place for 12 years.

His two-story home abuts the now-charred Pacoima Wash near the San Gabriel Mountains, where the fire blazed down the hills and did hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to his house. Roughly two weeks ago, state officials approached him about using his home for a sting operation. He agreed.

Undercover investigators contacted contractors who had left cards and leaflets in the neighborhood and arranged for them to look at the homes.

On Wednesday, the investigators posed as fire victims and asked contractors to write down bids for work such as landscaping, tree removal and painting. Officials then detained those without proper paperwork. (By state law, contractors must have a license to do work that costs more than $500 in labor and materials.)

Among those arrested were Albert Prizant, 82, of Van Nuys, who remained in custody Thursday in lieu of $50,000 bail for allegedly posing as a licensed contractor.

Prizant, who was arrested on an outstanding warrant, has a substantial court file, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. In March, Prizant was sentenced to three years of probation for a 2005 misdemeanor charge of unlawful advertising for construction work. In 2000, he was sentenced to 16 months in state prison after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of grand theft of property from an elderly person. In 1990, he was convicted of possessing a controlled substance and sentenced to three years probation, according to the district attorney’s office.

“We’ve known about this guy for a long time,” said Contractors State License Board spokesman Rick Lopes. “He continues to try to thumb his nose against the law. He’s 82 and appears to be set in his ways. This is not a good way to spend your twilight years.”

Tzchi Leon, 34, an Israeli national, was arrested because of an expired visa. He was released on $21,174 bail Wednesday evening, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department records.

Officials said the seven other cases would be turned over to the district attorney’s office to determine which charges are filed.

Unlicensed activity in construction makes up a large part of the underground economy, which is estimated to be about $60 billion to $140 billion a year, Lopes said. Not only is hiring unlicensed contractors illegal, but homeowners also have fewer protections and less recourse against contractors who abandon projects or workers who seek compensation for injuries on the job, Lopes said.

The license board’s Statewide Investigative Fraud Team conducts about one sting operation a week across California.

Mahnke said there was a clear need for such sweeps

“The thing with those contractors was, they promised us the world,” Mahnke said.

These days, Mahnke sits in his garage on a black leather armchair facing the street, keeping an eye on things and watching contractors work.

“They’re taking advantage of poor people,” Mahnke said. “We’re not rich up here, and they’re trying to [trick] them out of their last dime.”

For more information from the Contractors State License Board, visit “Guides and Pamphlets” at www.cslb.ca.gov.

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tami.abdollah@latimes.com