MAIMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A man who police say took thousands of dollars from Miami-Dade County residents to perform roofing work, although he wasn’t licensed to do so, was arrested this week and now his victims are speaking to Local 10 News.
John Luis McQueen, 64, of Miami, was arrested on a warrant Wednesday on charges of organized scheme to defraud, identification fraud, grand theft and contracting without a license during a state of emergency.
According to the warrant, at least four victims were targeted between March 2018 and August 2019, but Miami-Dade police confirmed Friday that they have now identified a total of 13 victims.
The warrant states that McQueen, who used the alias’ “Jeff Nash” and “Jeffrey McQueen,” took between $5,450 to $12,900 from each victim. The checks were made out to a company called “Champion Roof Consultants, Inc.”
Victoria and her husband Wayne Jackson hired McQueen in June 2019 to re-roof her guest house, but said he took over $8,000 from the couple up front and never performed any work. He also failed to return her calls and texts.
“What made you think he was legit?” asked Local 10 News reporter Andrew Perez.
“We spoke about Christianity. We spoke about God, I mean we got really personal and he was so nice,” said Victoria Jackson.
“The story he gave us about family...about his son Christian,” said Wayne Jackson. “He made us feel welcome. He made us feel like we could trust him. He’s had 37 years of business. Let’s do the work.”
Jackson said moments got tense when McQueen never showed up to do the roof work and ignored their phone calls.
Jackson said when McQueen finally did answer, he made threats and then disappeared.
It was a similar story with Harold Floyd, who claims his roof work was started before McQueen eventually disappeared.
“I hate to be taken, but I was taken advantage of,” he said.
In total, McQueen scammed the 13 victims out of about $103,000, police said.
Police said he portrayed himself as a licensed contractor to the victims and fraudulently utilized “the credentials of a legitimate contractor on fake receipts and contracts.”
The investigation was launched back in August of 2020 when a victim discovered McQueen was using a license number that belonged to a totally different company, according to detectives.
Authorities confirmed he was posing as a licensed contractor on Sunbiz.com, the state of Florida’s official business directory.
As of Friday evening, McQueen was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center without bond.
Police said he also had an arrest warrant out of Kentucky for illegal use of his brother’s identification.
Anyone who may be a victim of the scam is urged to call Miami-Dade police at 305-876-7373 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-473-8477.