Trying again, Aimee Carriere says she is aware of she did not do her due diligence as she usually would have when hiring a contractor.
She thought she might belief Alan Hrehirchuk to do the work, since their children performed hockey collectively.
Plus, she says he’d executed work for one more hockey household, and says he boasted a celeb endorsement from the HGTV present Property Brothers on the rink someday.
“I used to be like, ‘What is the hurt, I am going to see him day-after-day. It is only a couple exterior doorways and two small bogs.’ The place can he go, proper?” mentioned Carriere.
So, Carriere says she employed Hrehirchuk in Might 2024.
‘It is disheartening’
However she says by summer season, she began to fret about work not being executed, tradespeople not getting paid and gadgets that had been supposedly bought not displaying up.
Carriere says ultimately, she gave Hrehirchuk $40,000 and paid out one other $10,000 to unpaid tradespeople. She then cashed in RRSPs to foot the invoice to repair and end the work he by no means did.
She figures a job that was budgeted for about $50,000 ended up costing her greater than double that.
“This has hindered us for certain — no trip, no roof, no nothing.… It is disheartening,” mentioned Carriere.
After getting nowhere with Hrehirchuk on her personal, she determined to contact police.
Pleaded responsible to forgery final 12 months
In July, Hrehirchuk was charged with fraud over $5,000 and failing to adjust to a Service Alberta’s director’s order that prohibited him from working as a pre-paid contractor.
The Service Alberta order was issued in October 2023, after prison costs had been laid in opposition to Hrehirchuk. An investigation discovered he breached the province’s Client Safety Act (CPA) by having purchasers signal pay as you go contracts that had been “harsh, oppressive or excessively one-sided.”
In April 2024, Hrehirchuk pleaded responsible to forgery, whereas fraud costs had been withdrawn. He had been accused of forging subcontractor invoices and defrauding a pair who spent greater than $100,000 on work they are saying was by no means executed.
A decide granted him a conditional discharge, which meant his conviction would not be registered on his file.
Hrehirchuk’s lawyer declines touch upon new costs
That was one month earlier than taking up Carriere’s job.
Carriere says after this pricey lesson, she now urges individuals to do some digging earlier than they rent anybody, no matter who it’s.
“Even in the event you assume you realize any person or you could have the identical circle of pals, Google somebody for certain, on the very least simply Google them, discover out all the pieces you presumably can,” she mentioned.
Hrehirchuk is anticipated to seem in court docket on these newest costs on Aug. 26.
His lawyer has declined to remark.
The 2024 trial
Again in April 2024, Hrehirchuk apologized in court docket after pleading responsible and instructed a decide he “screwed up.”
“He has suffered and can proceed to endure considerably on account of … making two silly errors,” mentioned Justice Harry Van Harten on the time.
Nonetheless, the decide and Crown each famous that monetary losses to the victims additionally got here within the type of having to pay a second contractor to complete their renovations.
Prosecutors had sought a conditional sentence, with a portion of the six-month time period on home arrest adopted by a curfew. Defence lawyer Cory Wilson argued the scenario was “not a classical contractor rip-off.”
Wilson claimed the corporate had grown too rapidly, including suppliers began requiring Hrehirchuk to pay up entrance, which he could not do, so he solid the invoices as a result of he was embarrassed to ask for the cash up entrance.
“I am actually sorry. I screwed up majorly, and it is price me just about all the pieces,” Hrehirchuk mentioned when he addressed the court docket.
CBC had additionally spoke to a number of individuals in 2023 who claimed they had been victims as police investigated additional allegations. Two householders mentioned Hrehirchuk used a Property Brothers movie star endorsement to entice purchasers.
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