Serial Home Repair Scammer Ed Kavanaugh Gets 7 Years In Prison After Guilty Plea
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) -- Serial home repair scammer Ed Kavanaugh has been sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty in a criminal case against him.
Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow announced Thursday that Edmund Kavanaugh, 53, of Elmhurst, pleaded guilty last week to a continuing financial crimes enterprise – a Class 1 felony.
Kavanaugh owns a home repair company that prosecutors said defrauded customers out of thousands of dollars by failing to complete the projects for which he was hired, and writing checks to suppliers that he did not honor.
He was sentenced on Friday of last week to seven years in prison by Will County Judge Carmen Goodman, and was ordered to pay $42,215.94 in restitution.
"Kavanaugh is a textbook scam artist who has repeatedly defrauded victims out of their hard-earned money and engaged in various schemes so that his scams could continue," Glasgow said in a news release. "It is about time that this con artist who has swindled victims throughout the Chicagoland area has received what he so richly deserves – time in prison."
CBS 2's Marissa Parra has been covering the claims against Kavanaugh for the past two years. As supported in the charges against him, Kavanaugh's victims say he was best at getting homeowners to trust him to do some work - only to find out months later the work was done wrong or just never finished at all.
We first introduced you to him and three of his most rebellious victims two years ago.
"In the year since we met you and you brought this attention to the rest of the public, he has scammed dozens to hundreds more families," said Kavanaugh victim Claire Duggan in February 2021.
In fact, that aforementioned video of Kavanaugh with the hammer doing home repairs was taken three months after our first story aired.
The Will County charges against Kavanaugh were filed in October. The Illinois Attorney General's office also later charged him with 21 counts of felony home repair fraud, calling Kavanaugh a prolific scammer who uses various aliases to trick his victims on social media.
Officials said Kavanaugh owns and operates the home repair business Goliath Construction, and he repeatedly collected payments for jobs without doing the work. Kavanaugh also uses aliases for himself and his business so he can keep his scam going once details of his past become known, the AG's office said.
Kavanaugh also has a criminal record of fraud dating back 25 years.
The Attorney General's office first filed a civil lawsuit against Kavanaugh in October 2018, accusing him of defrauding customers out of thousands of dollars by selling defective appliances. In August 2018, The Attorney General's office indicted Kavanaugh on charges of aggravated home repair fraud and theft against another group of victims and as far back as 2006, the AG's Consumer Fraud Bureau entered into a consent decree forbidding Kavanaugh from involvement in "various home repair conduct."
For the Duggans, they say between the $8,000 lost and the damage to their home, the celebrations will have to wait.
"I'm really glad that these 27 families have gotten their first step towards justice, but we know there are hundreds more," Claire Duggan said in February 2021. "Yes, we're celebrating the victory in terms of these families seeing justice, but the job is not done."
The AG's office said victims of fraud should always file a complaint on their website, or call the Consumer Fraud Hotline at (800) 243-0618.