ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — Several homeowners and two roofing companies on the Treasure Coast are allegedly out hundreds of thousands of dollars after a former employee allegedly embezzled money.
Tim Mehaffey owns Roof It Better in Stuart. It was a thriving business until they hit some financial troubles last month.
“I ordered all the invoices from the suppliers and we started looking at each one and started seeing discrepancies,” he said.
Mehaffey told Contact 5 he believes a former employee stole from the company and from a number of their customers.
“It’s somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000,” Mehaffey said.
Mehaffey said he reported it to authorities and they are now working with the affected customers to make sure the proper work gets done for no additional cost.
“We have a $27,000 job that a lady says she paid $5,000 cash for. I have no record of it,” said Mehaffey. “He’s got all my files. He has my server. I had to have the police go and get my trucks. They were spread out between three counties.”
Not too long after that, Mehaffey said he learned the former employee’s previous employer, Alliance Group, LLC in Port St. Lucie, had a similar issue.
A manager at Alliance spoke with Contact 5 over the phone earlier this week, saying they also reported alleged embezzlement to authorities and they’re working with the affected customers.
Contact 5 has learned some of these customers have filed complaints with various law enforcement agencies on the Treasure Coast.
So far, only the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed they have an open and ongoing fraud investigation related to the case.
“Emotionally, I don’t know how I’m keeping it together,” Mehaffey said. “We were already sort of financially struggling, brought him in to help us out and he took advantage of that. I just trusted the wrong person.”
Alliance Group, LLC managers also told Contact 5 in their case, they believe a second former employee was involved.
Contact 5 is not naming any of the individuals who are allegedly involved, because no arrests have been made at this time and no charges have been filed.