The owner of an Atlanta homebuilding company and two employees are facing charges after police said they took money from customers, then misappropriated it.
Joseph Daniels, Ashley Martin and Nichola Lackey are facing theft charges stemming from their work with Dovetail Homes, police told Channel 2's Mike Petchenik.
"Joe was a very good salesman," Mel Wilinsky told Petchenik of the company's owner. "We took a liking to him."
Wilinsky said he put down a large deposit for Dovetail to build his Sandy Springs home, and he thought things were fine until he got a call from Martin.
"He told us straight up that they'd messed up and they hadn't used the money we'd paid them for the bills, and after that the liens started coming in," he said.
Leslie Suddath told Petchenik her family experienced a similar situation after hiring Dovetail to build their home in Buckhead.
"My husband just really hit off with Joe," she said.
But soon, Suddath said she noticed work wasn't moving quickly on the home, and the work that did happen was shoddy.
"I felt like something was wrong," she said. "I got a call from my roofer and he said he hadn't been paid and that's what set the whole thing off."
Suddath filed a police report and Atlanta police fraud investigator Bill Boyd was assigned to the case.
Boyd told Petchenik he discovered Suddath, Wilinsky and at least two other homeowners in Sandy Springs had problems with Dovetail.
"They were paying Dovetail homes to have services done on their home and Dovetail was not paying the subcontractors either completely or just in partial amounts," he said.
Soon, Boyd said subcontractors were putting liens on the homes as way to get payment for their services.
"Like any fraud investigation, it's about following the money trail. We sent out many bank subpoenas and began tracking the funds coming in and where they were going out," he said. "For as much that was coming in, it went to a lot of different places, but not to where it should have been going."
Joe Daniels' attorney, Steve Weiner, told Petchenik there was no intent to steal money from anyone.
"I think it was just bad business judgment," said Weiner.
Weiner said Daniels suffered a brain injury during a water-skiing accident in 2013 that caused his business to have problems.
"Once my client had his problem, the thing fell apart," he said.
Martin's attorney, Bruce Morris, told Petchenik what happened "a tragic business failure."
"Mr. Daniels, in retrospect, made some mistakes in failing to include some expenses and Dovetail was stuck having to pay," he said. "He underbid some things terribly."
Boyd said what happened should be a warning to anyone who hires a contractor to stay on top of the process.
"Whether you work directly with the subcontractors to make sure they're being paid, or to have lien waivers signed, which is basically the builder and the subcontractor sign in their name that they've been paid, so when you turn over your funds, it's going just to the builder," he said.
Suddath and Wilinsky told Petchenik they want their money back and for the homebuilder to pay.
"We just want to be made whole," said Wilinsky. "If these guys who have done something wrong, then they should suffer the consequences of whatever they've done wrong."
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