www.Clickorlando.com, Molly Reed, March 4, 2024
PORT ORANGE, Fla. – A man once hailed a hero in Volusia County is facing more charges after being accused of stealing money and impersonating a contractor.
Court records show Steve Parker was arrested again on Friday.
He was first arrested back in October after Port Orange police said he was hired by a local family who told them work never got done. Investigators had also found he was never a contractor.
Police said in October that more residents started reporting him, too, and after months of investigating, the State Attorney’s Office said it is charging Parker in two more cases.
“Didn’t surprise me because he was calling himself a contractor, using somebody else’s contracting license, so he knew what he was doing,” said Gwen Wakeman.
Wakeman and her mother, Nancy Moore-Fabian, were the family to first report Parker back in October before he was arrested.
Moore-Fabian said she is still now unable to live in her home 15 months after Hurricane Ian flooded it, and they gave Parker close to $74,000 in FEMA funds to fix their house, only for little work to get done.
“None of that came back. Steve offered nothing, and you know, FEMA’s not going to come back and give us the money just because a contractor took it from us,” said Moore-Fabian.
Parker bonded out of jail in October, but court records show on Friday he went back to jail.
The records show he is now facing charges in two additional cases: one where a woman said she gave him $12,000 for a deposit and another where a person gave him $3,000.
Investigators said during these schemes, Parker was using the license and identification of another Steve Parker, who is an actual contractor in South Florida.
Before his arrest, Parker was hailed a local hometown hero by the city for fixing up senior citizen and veterans’ homes damaged in the 2022 hurricanes. He claimed to be doing it with his own money.
News 6 met Parker once at a veteran’s homecoming after Parker rebuilt his house and another when News 6 honored him with a “Getting Results Award.”
“Due to the fact that he was not a contractor, we had to start basically from taking everything out and redoing it. There were no inspections, so it’s been a slow process,” said Wakeman.
As for Wakeman and Moore-Fabian, they’re now paying out of pocket for a new, real contractor.
“So not only did we lose the first funds, we are now just about maxed out with that in the second funds of having to redo everything,” she said.
Parker bonded out of jail again shortly after his arrest on Friday. News 6 reached out to his attorney for comment but has not heard back at this time.
News article: https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2024/03/04/once-hailed-a-hero-volusia-man-faces-more-charges-in-fake-contractor-case/