Wed. Jan 15th, 2025
The Irvine Police arrested a contractor for defrauding a resident out of $50K

Recently, a victim paid a contractor $50k to install new residential windows. That contractor however took the money but had no intention of doing the work, according to the Irvine Police Department.

The victim pulled back the curtains on the suspect’s scheme when they called the window supplier and learned the window order had been canceled.

The victim then reported the suspect to the Irvine Police.

Yesterday, IPD detectives arrested Michael Steven Hopsiter, 51, at his residence in Menifee, in Riverside County. He was booked at Orange County Jail for grand theft.

When you are going to hire a contractor ALWAYS look up their state license, here. Then check the CA Better Business Burea to see if there are any customer complaints about the contractor.

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Art Pedroza Editor
Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

By Art Pedroza

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

4 thoughts on “The Irvine Police arrested a contractor for defrauding a resident out of $50K”
  1. Hey Art, we live in San Clemente and were taken for several hundred thousand dollars by what turned out to be an unlicensed contractor. He disappeared and abandoned the job. We hired an attorney. The Wanna be Contractor was served by the Judge to appear on court a year and a half ago and five times since then. He has never shown up to court for the hearings or responded to anything from the judge or court. As of last Tuesday when he did not appear in court, the judge ruled that we won the judgement. He owes us every penny we are suing for. Now how do we get any of our money out of him??
    We have proof he still lives in the same house one block from the beach and is driving a Porsche.
    By the way, he also did this to another couple that bought a home 1 mile from us. He was working on both homes at the same time.

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