UPDATED: Contractors Bilked Customers of $675,175, County Detectives Say

UPDATE: Friday, 2:02 p.m.:

Ryan Thayer, 28, was arraigned Friday afternoon by District Judge John Kelly on 28 charges including felony charges of failure to perform services, theft by deception, and deceitful business practices. He was released on $25,000 unsecured bail.

Original Story:

The father and son team that operated Bristol Township-based Hammertime Construction and Demolition are accused of bilking nine customers of $675,175.

John Thayer, 60, was video arraigned before District Judge Jan Vislosky Thursday morning and released on $75,000 unsecured bail after turning himself in. He and his son Ryan Thayer, 28, both face more than 20 felony charges of failure to perform services, theft by deception, and deceitful business practices.

Ryan Thayer is expected to turn himself in and be arraigned either Thursday evening or Friday.

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by the Bucks County Detectives on Monday, the Thayers took on jobs and didn’t complete them. Some of the victims hired Hammertime Construction and Demolition to work on their properties following fires. All of the nine customers authorities say paid and did not receive work in return, are in Lower Bucks County.

The charges came following a months-long investigation that involved several agencies. Officials in the Bucks County Consumer Protection Agency told LevittownNow.com recently that they received several complaints about Hammertime Construction and Demolition, which was registered to John Thayer’s wife Linda Thayer. State records show that Hammertime Demolition and Hauling is registered to Ryan Thayer.

The most recent incident listed in court papers took place in April and the oldest happened in 2011.

Here’s some of what investigators alleged happened according to court papers:

• Hammertime Construction and Demolition was hired to fix the IHOP in the Fairless Hills section of Falls Township after a car hit it in April. The owner of the eatery paid Ryan Thayer a $10,000 deposit for the work. A subcontractor tiled a bathroom wall that was set to be removed. No other work to complete the job was done. The IHOP franchise owner said Ryan Thayer hung up on him when he called about the work.
• A Levittown resident contracted the company to build an addition and renovate an existing residence. The job was to be worth $107,564, but $80,000 was paid. The resident told investigators that problems with the quality of the work arose. An electrical contractor told the resident he had not been fully paid for his work at the home by Hammertime Construction and Demolition. The family was forced to stay with family during periods of construction, which started in December 2013. Crews moved a wedding dress and electronics so they could perform work. The items were not protected from the construction environment and some electronics were ruined. The wedding dress was found to have items stacked on top of it.
• An older couple in Lower Southampton had their home damaged in August 2013 when a tree crashed through it during a storm. Ryan Thayer signed a $30,000 contract with the couple. The work was not finished. During an alleged call to Ryan Thayer, a secretary told one of the residents he was not available and was in Wildwood, N.J. celebrating Irish Weekend. In total, the couple is said to have paid $25,000.
• Hammertime Construction and Demolition entered in a contract with a family burned out of their Goldenridge Drive home in Levittown in April 2013. The project was expected to cost $157,531 and be finished by October 2013. More than $60,000 was paid to the Thayers and little work was completed. The family was given a series of “excuses” and project dates were pushed back. The family was forced to hire another contractor to finish the work.
• In April 2012 an electrical fire on Rocky Pool Lane in Levittown destroyed a home. The resident was approached by Ryan Thayer who offered her a dumpster and said he went to school with her nephew. The woman contracted with Hammertime Construction and Demolition and paid the company $160,182. The project suffered many problems and material inside the house went missing. The woman and her nephew reached out to the Thayers. John Thayer is alleged to have told the family to stop contacting Ryan Thayer because he “didn’t like to talk to customers.”
• A Bensalem metal company contracted with Hammertime Construction and Demolition to repair their office following a December 2011 fire. Much of the work was done incorrectly before the project was abandoned. The metal company owner paid Hammertime Construction $80,000. The business owner was forced to pay $100,000 for a new contractor and to have an architect redraw the plans to work around the shoddy work done by Hammertime Construction and Demolition. The company was finally able to move back into their office in April 2014.

Ryan Thayer was appointed to the Bristol Township Zoning Board to replace an out going member, according to an official. Since the investigation kicked off however, Thayer has not taken part in his role as a zoning board member and is no longer a member, Bristol Township Manager Bill McCauley said.

County detectives served a sealed search warrant in the Spring to Bristol  Township for records related to the contractor’s business from the License and Inspections Department. Sources confirmed five files were taken from the Bristol Township’s offices included contracts from the Thayers’ business. Investigators from the county detectives office closed off the License and Inspections office for about four hours while they executed the search.

On Memorial Day weekend, LevittownNow.com broke the story that Falls and Bensalem townships were served with subpoena’s for records related to work done in those municipalities by Hammertime Construction and Demolition.

At a Bristol Township Council meeting in May, it was made public the contractor being investigated was a current Zoning Board official, yet members stopped short of directly pointing the finger at  zoning board member, Ryan Thayer. Additionally at the same meeting, it was announced the municipality had hired a second attorney to represent employees who had been subpoenaed as part of the District Attorney’s investigation.

“This is a consumer protection investigation, and as such, we really have nothing to say about it other than to make the point the township – other than the Thayers being residents here – is no way connected to the warrants filed,” McCauley told LevittownNow.com on Monday.

Hammertime Construction and Demolition is known by community groups in the Levittown area for donating items and sponsoring youth teams. However, several people involved in those organizations said Thayer stopped making donations once news of the investigation surfaced in spring.

With an attorney present, John Thayer was told by Vislosky that the conditions of his bail included no contact with the victims and that he could not enter into contracts while representing Hammertime Construction and Demolition.

When Ryan Thayer is arraigned, he is expected to be offered similar bail and conditions to the ones offered to his father.

LevittownNow.com Publisher/Editor Jeff Bohen contributed to this story

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.