Credit: Bristol Township Police
A Falls Township contractor agreed to a plea deal last week that will require him to pay $12,000 restitution.
After two days of trial, Michael G. Johnson Jr., 43, of Falls Township, pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of home improvement fraud. He agreed to pay $12,000 in restitution to a Bristol Township couple who hired him to build an addition onto a Graceful Lane home in Levittown.
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Johnson was sentenced to three years probation. The sentence is set to terminate when the restitution is paid.
Johnson, the owner of Bucks County Restoration, was charged with multiple other offenses including theft last summer after Bristol Township police investigated the homeowner’s claims that the contractor only completed a “minimal” amount of work after receiving payment. The most serious charges were dropped as part of the negotiated plea deal, according to Assistant District Attorney Kate Byrne and Jason Rubinstein, Johnson’s defense attorney.
“We believe this was a civil matter, but the criminal justice system happened to be a convenient means for resolving the conflict, though not by our design,” Rubinstein told LevittownNow.com. “[Johnson]wanted closure as much as the alleged victims did.”
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Byrne said the most important object in the case was to make sure the victims were make whole.
Correction: Mr. Johnson pleaded no contest. A previous version of this article mistakenly said he pleaded guilty.
