BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – A man who claimed to be a contractor is accused of defrauding a Baton Rouge resident out of $30,000.
According to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, Ernest Martin and a resident agreed Martin would repair the resident’s home via a company called E & JM Properties LLC. The contract they signed stipulated the work would be carried out for a total of $40,375.
Eventually, the resident went to the sheriff’s office and complained that the work on her home was never completed even though she’d paid Martin thousands of dollars.
Detectives said an investigation revealed that E & JM Properties LLC is not licensed for residential contracting work. This is a fact Martin later admitted during an interview with investigators.
According to EBRSO, Martin also said the resident paid him approximately $30,000.
The homeowner said they had to hire another company to take care of the work that wasn’t completed, and this amounted to expenses that totaled $36,000, an affidavit stated.
Detectives arrested Martin and charged him with residential contractor fraud. They said he was previously charged with contracting without a license in both Orleans Parish in 2007 and in Calcasieu Parish in 2023.