Defendant: Michael Scoca (DOB 01/18/65)
June 3, 2019 -- Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. announced that Michael Scoca of New Rochelle was sentenced to prison for scamming a family out of tens of thousands of dollars to build a new home which was never built.
Specifically, he pleaded guilty one count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, class E felony, in November. On Thursday (5/30), Westchester County Judge Barry Warhit sentenced Scoca to 1.5 to 3 years in state prison.
Background
Michael Scoca claimed he was a licensed general contractor and convinced a Bronx family planning to move to Westchester that he would build them a new home. The defendant convinced his victims to provide him with a total of five separate credit cards to pay for materials and construction costs.
Rather than complete the construction of the home, Scoca instead used his victims’ personal identifying information and credit card numbers to pay for his own unrelated business and personal expenses, including a payment of nearly $3,000 for fees owed by the defendant to a New Rochelle yacht club, a purchase of over $1,000 in precious metal coins by the defendant, and multiple other purchases totaling thousands of dollars from local retail stores and deposited money into the defendant’s own PayPal account.
The defendant was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $61,905.51 to the victims.
The case was prosecuted by the Investigations Division Assistant District Attorney Emily Rowe-Smith of the Economic Crimes Bureau.
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Note for the public: Anyone considering hiring a home contractor should check with the Westchester County Department of Consumer Protection and the Better Business Bureau. If a consumer believes they have been defrauded by a contractor they can file a complaint with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office.
In compliance with the Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 3.6, you are advised that a charge is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
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