WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A Forsyth County judge ordered a man to pay back thousands of dollars for a paving project that damaged a woman's driveway. Jerome Shaw pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of accessory after the fact to obtaining property by false pretenses and accessory after the fact to exploitation of a disabled or elderly person.
That person, Mickey Reavis, says she was working in her flower bed three years ago this May when Shaw and a group of workers pulled up offered to pave her driveway for free. She says she had some reservations but trusted the men and let them pour asphalt they said was left over from a nearby project.
"They were just as friendly as they can be you know good old country boys I thought," she said.
Reavis says they finished about two-thirds of her driveway before they told her they'd run out of material and would need to get more. Then she says they told her they needed $6,500 for the job.
"I said, ‘what do you mean? This is free,'" she said. "And I looked at the guy that told me that and I said, ‘You told me this wouldn’t cost me anything,’ and he said, ‘No, I told her so much a square foot,’ and I said, ‘You did not!’"
Reavis says she told the men she didn't have the money so they came down on the price and asked for $3,700. She says the men surrounded her in her basement until she went upstairs and got a check. Reavis says some of the men stayed at her house while others went to cash the check.
"He left them here with me in case that check didn’t cash. Then I don’t know what he would’ve done to me."
According to Reavis, the men did not finish the work and the job they did complete was poor-quality. She filed a police report and state officials came to inspect the driveway and told her it was not substantial.
The Forsyth County District Attorney's Office took her case to court.
Reavis was already receiving $40 a month from Lige Bobby Boswell, a co-defendant in the case. Boswell was banned from doing business in North Carolina in 2014 for conducting paving scams according to the attorney general's office. Now the assistant district attorney in Forsyth County says she'll get $3,341 in restitution from Shaw.
The Better Business Bureau says you can protect yourself from this scam. Ask questions and to see the company's local references and license. Get an estimate from them in writing and don't feel pressured into having the work done that day. If the company is legitimate, they'll come back to do the job.
If you think you've been the victim of this scam you can file a complaint with the attorney general's office. Call 1-877-5-NO-SCAM.