Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Coral Bay owner's arrest is expected

Steve Bartlett, the builder accused of fraud, reportedly will turn himself in.

By DAN DEWITT
Published November 10, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - Prosecutors have issued a warrant to arrest Steve Bartlett, owner of Coral Bay Construction Inc., on charges that he stole more than $100,000 from his customers.

The State Attorney's Office contacted Bartlett's lawyer, who made arrangements for his client to turn himself in, according to a statement released Thursday afternoon by the Hernando County Sheriff's Department. The department and the State Attorney's Office have been investigating Bartlett since May, when he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The department cannot release details on the case until Bartlett is formally charged, said sheriff's Deputy Donna Black.

Coral Bay was the largest of several builders whose business practices were questioned as they expanded rapidly during the recent building boom. At one point, Bartlett was building 170 homes and garages in Hernando County.

Nearly 140 of his customers filed complaints with the Sheriff's Office, saying Bartlett took their money to build homes but never completed them.

Many have said recently that they were eager to see Bartlett arrested, and one of them, Conrad Filipiak, said he was pleased to hear Thursday that this would happen soon.

"That's great," said Filipiak, who hired Coral Bay to build a home in Royal Highlands.

He wrote Bartlett five checks totaling $126,000 that Bartlett agreed to cash as he completed various phases of construction. He instead cashed them immediately and never began work on the home.

"I could understand if Bartlett ran into problems and couldn't finish a house. But cashing five checks and doing nothing, that's stealing," Filipiak said.

Proving fraud is harder than that, Phil Hanson, the prosecutor who investigated Bartlett, said last month.

One way to do it, he said, was to show Bartlett spent money on himself that was supposed to be used to build houses.

Bartlett, who did not respond to a message left on his cell phone Thursday, previously said that he never defrauded his customers. He said that he took on too many new jobs during the boom and was unable to complete the homes because of rising labor and material costs.

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or (352)754-6116.

[Last modified November 10, 2006, 11:24:05]