Victims Testify Against Contractors Accused of Bilking Them

One by one, hour after hour, people who said they were bamboozled by the father and son team that operated Levittown-based Hammertime Construction and Demolition testified against the two.

At the end of the several hour long preliminary hearing for John Thayer, 60, and Ryan Thayer, 28, Judge Jan Vislosky forwarded roughly 30 felony charges against each of the men onto Doylestown for trial. The charges against the men include felony failure to perform services, theft by deception and deceitful business practices.

Authorities allege the two took part in bilking customers of roughly $770,000 and leaving a slew of unfinished projects in their wake.

Robert Smedley, 84, of Bristol Township’s Levittown section,  was first to testify and told the court he agreed to hire Hammertime Constriction and Demolition after a fire heavily damaged the home he shared with his wife in 2013. With the assistance of his son-in-law, he paid the company for work the family and Bucks County Detectives allege was not finished. His carpenter by trade son in law, Peter Miles said the work completed at the house was not worth the tens of thousands he paid for.

“I thought we were in pretty good shape because both of them were in my vicinity in the community,” Smedley testified.

Several witnesses testified they signed “loose” contracts with the contractors.

“I gave him (Ryan) money and I didn’t see him again,” Fairless Hills IHOP Owner Hanna Keryakous testified. Keryakous said work on a bathroom and window damaged when a car hit the restaurant in spring was not finished by Hammertime Construction.

A visibly upset victim testified against the defendants. Irene McGarvey was shaking and yelled at the men while she was testifying about paying a concrete contractor $14,000 to cover his cost for work at her yard. She claimed the Thayers were supposed to pay the tab but didn’t.

“That money came from my pockets, and I went through hell!” she yelled.

McGarvey, who spoke outside the scope of the questions from the defense, said she lived in a trailer without amenities due her running out of funds following the Thayers lack of completion on a project she said she paid for.

“I knew I shouldn’t have done this. I knew this was going to happen,” she said after the outburst in court. Officials were able to calm McGarvey down after she left the stand.

William Merkle of Fairless Hills glared at the Thayers as he walked out of the courtroom following his testimony.

Electrical contractor Steven Gerhard testified the Thayers failed to pay him for about $4,000 of work he did to a Bensalem home Hammertime Construction and Demolition was working on. That resident, Bonnie Koffs, said work at her address was not complete after she dealt with both Ryan and John Thayer. Koffs sat in court after her testimony with her attorney by her side.

Victims spoke of the thousands, in some cases, over $100,000 they had to pay to finish the work they say Hammertime Construction did not.

Staff from the Bristol Township License and Inspections Department testified and said the Thayers did not have proper permits for all the projects they started.

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.

John Thayer’s attorney, Niels Eriksen, distanced his client from Ryan Thayer’s alleged misdeeds following testimony. He also said several times that John Thayer turned his business over to Ryan Thayer before the work alleged thefts happened.

Michael Parlow, the attorney for Ryan Thayer, said the whole case is a civil matter and not a criminal one.

“What the hell is he talking about?” one of the victims said aloud from the court gallery.

The defense attorney for the younger Thayer continued by saying the prosecution provided little evidence to show Ryan Thayer, a former Bristol Township Zoning Board member, did anything more than “take” customers. Parlow said the money lost in many of the cases outlined in court papers involved funds distributed by insurance companies and public adjusters.

Assistant District Attorney Jay Karsch rebutted by saying the money paid out by insurance companies was paid by the victims during the lifetime of the policies. He added that the fact Hammertime Construction officials did not get the proper permits shows they had no intention to finish the work they took money for.

Judge Vislosky said it was not her place to editorialize about the testimony and then forwarded the charges on.