South Florida residents paid an alleged contractor to remodel their kitchens, but the job was never done and the man is now unresponsive. The Telemundo 51 Responde team discovered that various law enforcement agencies have investigated the individual because he allegedly has been doing the same thing for years under different names and companies.
Maria Álvarez was looking to remodel the kitchen of an investment property in Miami-Dade. And on social media she found who she claims was posing as a licensed contractor. “He advertised himself as Amazon Cabinets and Flooring and his name was Roberto González. The wine gave me the price, he taught me the design,” says Maria.
Roberto González was so charismatic and talkative that he forgot to verify if he really had a license before sending him $6,188, a deposit he sent through Zelle, the application that works just like cash.
Maria says the supposed contractor agreed to have the kitchen for her in a couple of weeks but the delivery date passed and he started making excuses, then he never showed up again so she called the Miami-Dade police. “Thank God the police were very understanding. I called them, they came here”, says Maria.
The police told her to file a complaint with the county Department of Regulations and Economic Resources. “We have had four cases against this contractor. The three previous to Mrs. Álvarez were investigated in our department. So they referred to the police department,” says Cristina Alonso, spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade Department of Regulations and Economic Resources.
After she made the report, our cameras were present when the agency subpoenaed Maria to identify the alleged contractor. “They gave me the photo to identify,” says the woman.
It turns out that Roberto’s real name is Hiran Mazaira and he doesn’t have a contractor’s license. He is known to have an arrest in Lee County where he was charged with charging a client $4,100 for another job that according to official records was not completed in 2015.
He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to one day in jail, forced to pay fines and participate in community programs after being convicted of grand theft and working as an unlicensed contractor. Those are the same charges that were brought against him in Manatee County in an almost identical case where the sentence was similar.
Esther Fonseca is another alleged victim of Mazaira but this time in Delray Beach. “I found it through social networks and it appeared as Amazon Kitchen, Robert González”.
Esther claims to have given her a deposit of $6,600. She is now in the process of reporting it to the agency that regulates contractors in her area as Maria’s case progresses in Miami-Dade.
“We investigate it in our contractor section. Then we refer it to the Miami-Dade Police Department so that they open their investigation and can prosecute it as a criminal charge”, explains Cristina Alonso. Miami-Dade police confirmed that they have an active and pending investigation open.
We tried several times to contact Hiran Mazaria but were unsuccessful. “We have tried to contact this individual, but we have not been able to speak to him,” Alonso says. The regulation department, to prevent this from happening to more people, encourages all homeowners to contact them before giving money to a contractor to verify their history.
If you have been the victim of an unlicensed contractor, you can report it to local law enforcement, your municipality’s code regulation division, or the state department of professional regulation by calling 1-866-532-1440.
