The owner of Dexperts, Paul J. Catlett, 48, of Owings has been indicted, along with a salesman for his company, Michael C. Martin, 52, of Alexandria, Va., for theft.Dexperts was a home improvement company located at 733 Keith Lane in Owings.
Throughout 2004 Catlett signed contracts with five victims to perform home improvement labor, accepted deposits from homeowners, then failed to perform the jobs. One victim contacted MHIC, the Maryland Home Improvement Commission, which had already received 32 complaints against Dexperts since July 2002.
MHIC had suspended Dexperts license on 10/01/2004 and then revoked it on 11/01/2004. However, the company continued to advertise and its webpage was still active as of October 11th of this year.
After one victim contacted the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office, Det. C. Ray of the CIT Division and Steve Rupard, an investigator with the States Attorney’s Office, began an investigation and discovered four additional victims.
It was learned that a total of over $38,000.00 was fraudulently accepted by Catlett and Martin for jobs never completed and in four of the cases, never performed at all. The investigation culminated in the indictments by a grand jury of both Catlett and Martin on October 20, 2005 for five counts of Theft Over $500, one count of Theft Scheme and 4 counts of Failure to Perform a Contract.
Anyone with similar complaints about the company Dexperts is asked to contact Det. Cari Ray at 410-535-1600 ext. 2595.
