Two Long Island brothers have been sentenced to jail this week after scamming three elderly Queens homeowners and stealing more than $30,000.
Bruce Wimmer, 29, of Half Circle Drive in Holbrook, New York, and his brother Michael Cristiano, 33, of Hewlett Avenue in Patchogue pleaded guilty earlier this year in a case in which they were charged under New York State’s Hate Crime Law.
The unscrupulous pair bilked money out of the senior homeowners by charging them for chimney and roof work that was never done.
They were re-arrested in September on similar charges for again scamming an elderly woman from Flushing out of $24,000. Ac- cording to DA Richard Brown, the defendants were given the opportunity to plead guilty and make restitution in order to spare their elderly victims the stress and ordeal of testifying at trial. Yet instead of learning from that crime they turned around and once again targeted an elderly Queens homeowner to steal a substan- tial amount of money.
Today’s sentence of incarceration is imperative to keep these defendants from making a mockery of justice. ”
The defendants, who in the past have allegedly operated under the name Reliable Chimney, Inc., or under a false name, American Chimney, were each sentenced in Queens County Supreme Court.
Wimmer was sentenced to one and one-half to three years in prison and Cristiano was sentenced to one year following their guilty pleas last month to fourth-degree grand larceny.
In their previous case, Wimmer and Cristiano each pleaded guilty on Aug. 2, 2011, to attempted first-degree scheme to defraud in satisfaction of the charges pending against them since June 2011 and agreed to make $30,406 in restitution to their victims on or before sentencing. At approximately 4:00 p.m. on Sept. 20, Cristiano dropped off a restitution check for $7,500 at the District Attorney’s offices. At 5:30 p.m. that same day he and his brother were arrested in the driveway of a 90-year-old Flush- ing woman who they defrauded out of $24,185 by overcharging her for chimney work that either was not done or was minimal at best.
According to the most recent charges, between Aug. 20 and 22, and Sept. 8, Cristiano and Wimmer, who are not licensed to op- erate a chimney contracting business in New York City, offered to clean the homeowner’s chimney, perform work on her driveway and repair her fence. Shortly thereafter, the defendants demanded $5,500 for chimney work they stated that they had completed. The two defendants repeatedly returned to the victim’s home without solicitation and demanded payment for work and supplies. Furthermore, the defendants drove their victim to the bank to collect the money. In total, the defendants stole $24,185 from the victim.
The case came to light when the victim’s bank became concerned about the number of large withdrawals she was making and contacted the New York City Police Department’s 107th Precinct.
