OTTAWA - An Ottawa area contractor has been sentenced to 37 days in jail and payment of $14,000 in restitution for violating Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act.
In April 2009, a homeowner in the Ottawa area hired PSC New Home Construction Inc. to build a garage.
The homeowner paid a deposit of $5,000 to the company owner, but he failed to perform any of the work as agreed. The contractor then approached the homeowner’s elderly father for more money. He insisted on driving the father to his bank to withdraw and pay him an additional $4,000 towards the construction of the garage.
Despite the total amount of $14,000 paid to the company owner, no work was done, no materials supplied, nor were any monies returned to the homeowner.
The court found PSC New Home Construction Inc. and its owner guilty of:
* Engaging in unfair practices by making false, misleading or deceptive consumer representations.
* Failing to provide consumers with a direct agreement containing information required under the Consumer Protection Act.
* Failing to refund monies paid within 15 days of the consumer having given notice of cancellation of the contract and asking for a refund.
The jail sentence and restitution handed down this month are in addition to 71 days in jail, $90,000 in fines, $37,946 in restitution and 75 hours of community service imposed on the owner by Provincial Offences Court in August 2011 for failing to provide agreed-upon services to several homeowners in the Ottawa area.
Sentenced in Provincial Offences Court was Philip Slobodzian.
Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act provides for fines of up to $250,000 for corporations and $50,000 for individuals convicted of offences. It also provides for jail terms of up to two years less a day for each offence. The act also empowers the court to order offenders to pay compensation or make restitution to victims.