Watch above: A Calgary contractor who was paid up front for renovations he never finished pleaded guilty to entering into prepaid contracts with six different families without a licence on Friday. Jill Croteau reports.
CALGARY – A Calgary contractor who was paid up front for renovations he never finished pleaded guilty to entering into prepaid contracts with six different families without a licence on Friday.
Kieron Warren received tens of thousands of dollars in pre-payments from families whose work was never done. The former clients are collectively seeking $400,000.
“Our family was left in a position where we had to go back and get all of this redone, and if you look at all of the other five families, so six in total, we were all left in that same position, where the money that we had to put out initially, we had to do it all over again and clean up his mistakes,” said victim Brian Chubb. “So no, I don’t believe it’s astronomical.”
Chubb and his wife hired Warren for renovations in his kitchen and three bathrooms, which was supposed to take about six weeks. Instead, their partially-gutted home went unfinished for over a year.
“I was on stress leave,” said Chubb’s wife, Angie. “It’s cost a lot emotionally.”
Though Warren pleaded guilty to entering into the contracts without a licence, his lawyer says they reject the amount owed.
“He certainly wants to pay back whatever is fair, but that’s the issue,” said lawyer Pawel Milczarek. “That’s the issue between the parties—what is fair under the circumstances? How much work has been provided? And that’s what’s going to be determined between now and September.”
Service Alberta began investigating five complaints against Warren in 2012, when he was the owner of Kreate Kitchens. Two different homeowners told Global News in 2013 they’d given Warren deposits for kitchen renovations, one totaling $28,000. The work was never completed, and their money was not returned.
Warren also operated a company called Hillcrest Renovations, and was previously charged for operating without a pre-paid contractor’s license. He was convicted in that case, fined $7,000 and ordered to repay his victims. In January 2013, Warren was found guilty of taking $50,000 for renovation work in 2007 and 2008 without a pre-paid contractor’s license.
Warren’s most recent case returns to court in September.
With files from Erika Tucker, Tony Tighe and Tamara Elliott
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