DA: After guilty plea, men launch new scam

Two Long Island brothers have been charged with running a high-pressure chimney repair scam on a 90-year-old woman while they were raising $30,000 in restitution to resolve charges of running the same scam on other elderly victims in June.

Bruce Wimmer, 29, of Holbrook, and Michael Cristiano, 33, of Patchogue, were arrested last week in the driveway of a Flushing woman for defrauding her of $24,000 just 90 minutes after they dropped off a $7,500 check to partially compensate their earlier victims, Queens prosecutors said.

The two men, who operated under the name Reliable Chimney, face new charges of larceny as a hate crime against the elderly, larceny, operating a scheme to defraud and running a home improvement business without a license. Bail was set at $35,000, and they have been jailed since Sept. 21, officials said.

Wimmer and Cristiano were charged in June with ripping off $30,000 from three other elderly homeowners by overcharging for work done badly or not at all, paying repeated visits to collect, and, in some cases, driving their victims to the bank to withdraw cash.

In August, they pleaded guilty to attempted fraud under a deal that allows them to receive probation and no jail if they make full restitution by their sentencing in December, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. A Brown spokesman said the office is studying if it is bound by that deal given the new charges.

"The defendants were given the opportunity to plead guilty and make full restitution in order to spare their elderly victims the stress and ordeal of testifying at trial," Brown said in a statement. "However, it appears that the defendants did not learn from their earlier encounter with the criminal justice system."

The latest charges say that starting Aug. 20 -- less than three weeks after their guilty plea -- Wimmer and Cristiano approached the Flushing woman about cleaning her chimney and working on her roof, driveway and fence. They kept returning to her house demanding payment for work and supplies, and drove her to her bank to withdraw cash.

They were arrested after officials at her bank became concerned about the withdrawals and contacted police. The woman said they had done no work on the driveway or fence, and an investigator found only "a small patch of tar around the chimney" on the roof. Wimmer and Cristiano face up to 15 years in jail on the new charges, the DA said. Their attorneys did not return calls for comment.