Two plead guilty in separate contractor fraud cases

A Lockport man and North Carolina man pleaded guilty last week in separate cases of victimizing South Lafourche homeowners after Hurricane Katrina.

Shortly before the start of their scheduled jury trials, Lorry Dufrene, 41, of Lockport, and Kenneth Jeffries, of Charlotte, N.C., pleaded guilty on felony theft charges, the Lafourche Parish District Attorney’s Office said.

“As everyone can appreciate, people with damaged homes throughout the Gulf South were especially vulnerable to crime in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,” said District Attorney Camille A. Morvant II. “Our focus has been to help the victims of those crimes, while making sure that the culprits faced justice.”

A Galliano woman paid Dufrene to repair her roof post-Katrina, the district attorney’s office said. After receiving payment, Dufrene did remove damaged shingles from the roof, but never returned to finish the job.

Dufrene was originally charged with contractor’s misapplication of payments, the district attorney’s office said. Under his plea agreement, Dufrene pleaded guilty to felony theft and was given a three-year suspended sentence and placed on supervised probation for three years.

He was also fined $1,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service, and given 30 days of home incarceration.

As a condition of his probation, Dufrene was also ordered to repay the woman. A hearing to determine the amount owed is set for July 31. District Judge F. Hugh Larose will preside at the hearing.

“Because Mr. Dufrene had no prior record, we felt the plea serve the interests of justice,” Morvant said. “Our goal is to see that justice is done, and in this case, that also means making the victim whole.”

Assistant District Attorney Peter Rousse, who handled the case, said, “This plea allows the victim to recover the money she lost. The victim was consulted and was satisfied with the agreement.”

Jeffries was charged after defrauding a South Lafourche couple out of $3,800. He was extradited from Ware County in Georgia to stand trial, the attorney’s office said.

The couple hired Jeffries to repair their storm-damaged roof. After receiving $3,800 in November 2005, Jeffries promptly fled the state. He was arrested earlier this year in Georgia.

“Because Mr. Jeffries has provided false dates of birth and Social Security numbers for himself, it was difficult to pinpoint his exact criminal history,” said Assistant District Attorney Steven Miller, who prosecuted the case. “But it was clear that he had felony convictions in several states in the southeastern (United States) and it was clear that we were dealing with a con artist.”

Jeffries was sentenced to serve eight years in prison on the charge. The maximum he faced was 10 years, the district attorney’s office said.