By GLEN WERLING
A former Florida woman, who is facing several fraud charges in Lee County, Fla., has been arrested in Poneto.
Carrie Leigh Heminger, 44, is facing charges of engaging in contracting without a license, scheme to defraud $50,000 or more and grand theft of $100,000 or more in Lee County, Fla. The county seat of Lee County is Fort Myers.
Heminger reportedly represented herself to be a remodeling contractor in Lee County.
In the report filed with the Lee County Sheriff’s Department, six victims are listed. In each case, the victims were allegedly defrauded out of thousands of dollars by Heminger in a variety of ways connected with her alleged phony contracting business.
In one case, Heminger defrauded a woman out of $40,000 by promising to perform remodeling work on her home. Heminger started the work but allegedly never finished it.
The woman and her father eventually ended up working alongside the people Heminger was supposed to have paid to do the work, but allegedly never did. They then paid the construction workers themselves, resulting in them paying twice for the work that Heminger had allegedly promised to do.
Another victim claimed he had been defrauded out of $33,506.61 after he invested in her remodeling “business.” The man sued Heminger and successfully won judgment but has never been able to collect.
A third victim claimed she had met Hemminger at a shop that Heminger previously owned and had bought a bed from Heminger. She had also contracted Heminger to perform work on her father-in-law’s house.
The woman and her husband reportedly wrote a check for $10,000 to Heminger, but the couple’s bank reportedly contacted them and told the husband that Heminger was suspected of committing fraud against other people.
When the wife contacted Heminger, she blamed the bank’s refusal to cash the check on problems Heminger was having with her ex-husband.
The wife then reportedly convinced her husband to give Heminger $9,000 in cash.
The work reportedly was never done and efforts by the couple to get their money back were unsuccessful.
Another alleged victim reportedly contracted Heminger to perform a remodel of her children’s bedroom. One of the children was sick and, for a time, hospitalized. The alleged victim told investigators she was excited about surprising the sick child with her new bedroom. But instead of delivering the furniture that Heminger had promised to deliver she reportedly delivered broken, old and filthy furniture in the middle of the night on the woman’s doorstep.
In total, the woman said she had paid Heminger $1,280 but claimed she never received any of the furniture that she and Heminger agreed she would deliver.
And on the promise from Heminger to receive the new furniture, the woman reportedly had gotten rid of the old furniture in her childrens’ bedroom.
Moreover, Heminger is apparently somewhat of a negative celebrity in Lee County as her alleged victims have created a Facebook page that has more than 70 members.
Heminger also was the focus of a couple of investigative reports by the Fox News TV station 4 in southwest Florida that were aired on news broadcasts by the station.
Heminger allegedly has been uncooperative with the investigation.
There was no indication immediately available as to how she got from Fort Myers to Poneto or what her connection to Poneto might be. She was living in a house on Ind. 218 owned by a company called Cool Cats and Kittens 1 LLC, with a Denver, Colo., address. That was where the warrant was served.
She was reportedly seated on the front porch of the residence when the warrant was served.
glenw@news-banner.com
