MADISON, Wis. — A contractor with a history of scamming people out of thousands of dollars admitted to routinely using customers’ payments for non-business expenses, court records show.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Columbia County court against 51-year-old Tyler Hansen, he and his wife Jennifer would regularly deposit customer checks into a business account, and, when the checks cleared, they would take the money out in cash and hide it away in a safety deposit box or in their personal bank accounts to prevent customers from asking for refunds due to incomplete work.
Over the course of the past three months, prosecutors in at least five counties have filed criminal charges against Hansen including several counts of theft by a contractor for varying amounts of money.
Court records show Hansen and his various LLCs are facing contractor fraud allegations in 16 different Wisconsin counties, though charges had not been filed in all of those cases. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has also received numerous complaints regarding Hansen’s conduct.
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Late last week, Hansen was taken into custody in Columbia County a day after a judge granted him a signature bond for a case in Dane County.
On Tuesday, prosecutors in Columbia County filed charges of their own against Hansen alleging the 51-year-old had admitted to paying child support through his business account and using other business funds for non-business expenses.
According to the complaint, Jennifer Hansen also admitted to clearing out their safety deposit box after Hansen was charged in Dane County.
The News 3 Now Call for Action team has been contacted by more than five dozen people who’ve lost money due to Hansen’s failure to finish jobs throughout 2022.
If you have a consumer issue you’d like the Call for Action team to review, click or tap here.
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