Contractor admits to variety of charges

Nov. 21--BEVERLY -- An unlicensed home improvement contractor whose victims include an octogenarian Beverly woman whose home was left in ruins, and his own brother, pleaded guilty to 42 charges against him Monday.

Jaime Ford, 49, now faces up to four years in prison when he's sentenced in January on, among the charges, being a common and notorious thief.

The guilty pleas came just one week before Ford was set to stand trial, where he would have faced twice as many counts -- and potentially, decades behind bars if convicted.

In addition to admitting to being a common and notorious thief, Ford pleaded guilty to multiple counts each of felony larceny, insurance fraud, forgery, home improvement fraud, violation of state regulations concerning asbestos removal and disposal, violating state building codes, and making false statements under oath, as well as to single counts of identity fraud, workers compensation fraud, obtaining signatures by false pretense, conspiracy, making a false report of a crime.

Ford was barely audible as he uttered the word "guilty" 42 times, then answered a series of questions from Judge Thomas Drechsler intended to ensure that Ford understood what he was doing and the rights he was giving up.

At several points, the judge and a court stenographer had to ask him to speak up.

The man on the witness stand in Salem Superior Court Monday was a far cry from the effusive salesman described by the Beverly woman, who recalled in a 2015 interview how Ford showed up at her home with lobsters, called her "Nonni," an Italian word for grandmother, and gave her and her family "all the right answers" when they discussed their dream of updating and expanding a little Chipman Road ranch.

Instead, she was left with a shell and piles of construction debris, including asbestos.

She is expected to be among the victims at Ford's sentencing hearing on Jan. 11.

Ford's other victims include insurance companies like Traveler's, which paid him worker's compensation benefits and covered a $100,000 operation for injuries that he claimed he'd suffered while working for his brother's demolition company, prosecutor Philip Mallard told the judge.

Ford had forged W-2 forms to suggest he was earning $250,000 a year at the company -- which, as it turns out, was more than the company even made in a year, said the prosecutor.

And, said the prosecutor, at the same time he was collecting worker's compensation benefits, he was setting up the two companies he would falsely advertise as licensed home improvement contractors, JFA Services LLC and Home Solutions.

Another insurer, Liberty Mutual, paid out $50,000 in fraudulent claims after Ford enlisted one of his customers, a Cambridge resident, to report that tools and construction supplies had been stolen from a job site in that city, said Mallard.

And while many of Ford's customers, who were all over eastern Massachusetts, had their work completed, many of them later discovered that Ford had forged their signatures on permits, or used the identity of a licensed contractor on the permits, or used a lower price for the job on the application to reduce the fee.

Among the Essex County communities where Ford did business were Beverly, North Andover, Middleton, and Lynnfield. He also had customers in Hudson, Stoneham, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Lowell, Westborough and Southborough.

Ford, who lived in Lynnfield and Middleton at the times the offenses were taking place, also bought two Cadillacs.

The second, a $95,000 Escalade, was apparently purchased with a down payment that came from funds he'd obtained from the Beverly woman for her home project a day before, said the prosecutor.

Ford registered the luxury SUV in the name of a girlfriend in New Hampshire, to avoid sales tax, said the prosecutor.

Mallard did not have any of the victims in court on Monday. That's because Ford had repeatedly backed out of prior planned guilty pleas while the case was pending.

The lead investigators in the case, Beverly Police Detective Darlene Prinz and state police detective Steven Bucchieri, were present, however.

Across the aisle was Ford's mother.

The plea was entered with the understanding that Ford could withdraw it if Drechsler exceeds a four-year sentence -- the maximum Mallard said he would seek in the case.

The judge said he would wait to hear from the victims and asked for sentencing memos from both the prosecutor and Ford's attorney prior to making a decision.

Ford's attorney, Kirk Bransfield, declined to comment after the hearing as to what sentence he will request.

Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, by email at jmanganis@salemnews.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis.

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