OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)- A former metro pool construction owner is now being investigated after a number of then-clients got here ahead saying they misplaced tens of hundreds of {dollars} to an unfinished pool mission.
Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor is now investigating the matter.
According to a lawsuit filed towards former Bluewater Construction and Blue Paradise Pools and Spas owner, Sixto Aaron Garcia Gutierrez, eight Central Oklahoma customers contracted him to construct a pool from December 2020 to November 2021.
Those eight clients allegedly misplaced a mean of $28,556.25.
The most somebody is alleged to have misplaced is $43,750 and the least is $20,200, in keeping with the lawsuit.
News 4 requested the contact information of all these affected by this enterprise deal, however they had been unable to offer us with that.
Instead, our information was despatched to them.
News 4 did hear again from one then-client of Gutierrez’s who stated he gave him $30,000 for the pool, but it surely was by no means full.
The lawsuit additionally said in every of these eight instances, Garcia Gutierrez would full solely “partial and substandard work” earlier than ceasing all communication.
“Mr. Gutierrez and his companies, Bluewater Construction and Blue Paradise Pools and Spas, conned these families, left them with poorly constructed and incomplete pools, and abandoned their projects while leaving their property in an unsafe condition. We will not tolerate these deceptive practices in Oklahoma, and my Consumer Protection Unit is taking action to stop these practices and secure relief for those harmed.”
Oklahoma Attorney General, John O’Connor
The lawsuit reveals Garcia Gutierrez additionally did not get hold of the required construction permits to construct, which compromised the protection and high quality of the tasks, uncovered customers to pricey delays and/or monetary penalties and made it even much less possible that Garcia Gutierrez would full tasks in any respect.
“Multiple consumers were forced to spend time searching for and hiring a new contractor to complete the work Garcia Gutierrez had promised to complete.” Garcia Gutierrez not solely took the customers’ cash previous to finishing the work, he left many purchasers’ backyards in an unsafe and unusable state of affairs.”
The then-client we spoke with stated he needed to rent one other pool construction firm through which it value him a further $75,000.
The lawsuit offers an instance of a customers’ property the place massive excavations had been left unfinished and unprotected. Construction supplies and provides had been additionally strewn across the job web site.
News 4 was capable of get in contact with Garcia Gutierrez by cellphone.
He declined an interview and the use of his cellphone recording.
Garcia Gutierrez confirmed with KFOR that he didn’t full many tasks, however blamed the in-completion on private circumstances and the pandemic.
“What happened when it got bad, there was kinda like a domino effect and reason being is that most of these people knew each other. They were referrals. Everything was going great. When it got bad with one customer, the others kinda trickled right behind it,” stated Garcia Gutierrez.
He went on to say, “All these customers are great customers,” and stated he was apologetic for the way in which issues ended up.
Garcia Gutierrez claims he’s working together with his legal professional to determine out a “fair compensation” for these impacted, however stated the greenback quantities talked about within the lawsuit usually are not correct.
He not runs the pool construction firm anymore as he claimed it wasn’t “worth it.”
Garcia Gutierrez now works in a gross sales division and stated he’s engaged on accumulating the cash he must pay again his then-clients.
O’Connor is requesting the court docket to completely enjoin and restrain Garcia Gutierrez from participating in unfair, misleading or deceptive conduct.
He can be requesting that every then-client be paid restitution, to pay civil penalties to O’Connor within the quantity of $10,000 per every violation of the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act, to pay all prices for the prosecution and investigation of this matter, and to grant O’Connor additional aid because the court docket deems correct.
Garcia Gutierrez is anticipating a decision within the subsequent 60 days.
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