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Pool contractor gets two-year prison term

The Clearwater businessman was charged after 43 residents complained of his shoddy work or failure to finish work.

By CHRIS TISCH
Published September 23, 2005

LARGO - One woman lost the money she inherited from her parents. Another had to deflate her 401-K and get a home-equity loan.

Those women were two of 43 victims who lost thousands of dollars each after they hired Mark Langley to fix or refurbish their pools two years ago. Langley either did shoddy work or nothing at all.

Authorities eventually charged Langley with 60 counts of grand theft and unlicensed contracting.

On Friday afternoon, Langley, 46, pleaded guilty to the charges. Judge Thomas McGrady sentenced him to two years in prison. That will be followed by 15 years of probation, during which he must re-pay the $296,000 he took from his victims.

Langley already has paid back $101,000 in restitution.

"I hope you have learned your lesson and I hope you can get out and find a successful business venture that can allow you to re-pay the victims," the judge told Langley.

Prosecutors and Langley's defense attorney came to the plea agreement, which seemed a fitting blend of punishment and payback, said assistant state attorney Gary White.

Defense attorney Frank Louderback said Langley was remorseful.

"This was a business that went bad," he said.

Langley operated a pool refurbishing company out of Clearwater in 2003. He did not have the proper license.

Customers complained that the work on their pools was of poor quality. In some cases, the pools were drained and torn apart, then left to sit. Sometimes Langley never showed up at all.

Belleair resident Shelley Greenspan hired Langley to refurbish her pool. She just had inherited some money from her parents and planned to increase the equity in her home by improving the pool.

Langley tore the pool apart, drained it and left. He never returned. Subcontracters weren't paid and liens were placed on Greenspan's house. She had to hire a lawyer. She spent about $18,000 fixing the mess and another $22,000 getting the pool properly improved.

"The horror was getting up every morning and seeing this moldy, green mess," said, Greenspan, a 50-year-old saleswoman.

She had mixed feelings about the plea agreement. If convicted of the crime, Langley would have faced a minimum of 10 1/2 years in prison. The maximum was 220 years.

"I think the man has taken advantage of many people," Greenspan said.

The Pinellas clerk's office will distribute the $101,000 in restitution to the victims in the coming weeks or months. Once Langley is released from prison, he will be required to pay a minimum amount each month to the victims.

Greenspan said the victims have become close-knit as the case has wound through the court system. They have attended a number of hearings and pre-trial conferences together over the last two years. About a dozen showed up for the sentencing Friday.

"It got to be the running joke that after this we should have a pool party," she said. "And I think we probably will."

[Last modified September 23, 2005, 17:14:02]