VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A man accused of impersonating a licensed contractor and defrauding a woman of nearly $74,000 in Volusia County has finally been caught, according to the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office had been looking for 40-year-old Joseph England for over a year. He was caught last week in Seminole County and then brought back to Volusia County. Investigators have also tied him to several other schemes in the area.
England faced a Volusia County judge on Tuesday, where he was denied bond due to being charged in multiple cases and violating his probation.
The first arrest came in March 2022. The sheriff’s office said a woman in DeLeon Springs went to investigators after she hired England to build a barn for her, giving him nearly $74,000 to do so but said he never built anything.
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Detectives found he had registered a company called “England Site Development, LLC,” but he wasn’t a licensed contractor.
England bonded out of jail after this arrest — but the very next day, detectives received another report from a Deltona resident.
This time, a man paid England over $24,000 for several projects. The man told investigators that England and his employees completed some of the work but then vanished and never responded when the man asked for a refund.
The sheriff’s office then put out a warrant for England’s arrest.
While he was wanted by investigators, a report shows he was still advertising himself as a licensed contractor and doing work in the area. In May 2022, another person went to deputies and said he had hired England recently and didn’t realize he was not a licensed contractor.
This isn’t the first time England’s gone to jail for this: he was convicted in Lake County in 2016 for falsely identifying himself as a licensed contractor.
England will be back in court in Volusia in two weeks for his arraignment.
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