Key West man has been arrested for alleged illegal contracting in Monroe County.

KEY WEST, March 26, 2019 – A Key West man who’s previously been arrested for alleged illegal contracting in Monroe County has been arrested yet again on more charges.

Mark Morales, 54, was charged March 22 with unlicensed contracting, a felony; and fraud through misleading advertising, a misdemeanor. Morales, who now faces 14 total charges related to alleged illegal contracting in the Florida Keys, has been held in the Monroe County Detention Center on $310,000 total bond.

“Mark Morales has been cited numerous times by the Department of Business & Professional Regulation for continuing to operate without a contractor’s license,” State Attorney’s Office Investigator Frank Zamora wrote in his arrest affidavit. “Mark Morales has demonstrated a total disregard for the law because he still continues to operate without a contractor’s license.” DBPR alerted Zamora to the latest case.

A Florida Keys woman who had seen an ad on Facebook for a company called Keys Roofing hired Morales on September 17, 2018, to repair her roof, which he did that day. She paid $800 via a check made out to Julie Lynn Moore, 58, who herself faces 10 charges related to alleged illegal contracting in cases in which Morales is charged. She is not charged in the latest case.

On September 24, 2018, the woman hired Morales again to install 188 linear feet of gutter for the roof. Morales said it would cost $1,950. She wrote Moore a check for $1,000 as a down payment, and Morales subcontracted a Miami company to install the gutters. That company installed the gutters on November 12, 2018, and the homeowner wrote Morales a check for $950, the balance of the agreed-upon cost of the job.

But, Zamora wrote in his affidavit, Morales never paid the company that installed the gutters. That company then planned to put a lien on the woman’s house but she and the company made a deal where she paid it $1,600 for the work.

Zamora wrote in his affidavit that “Mark Morales continued to act in the capacity of a license contractor and continues to advertise himself as a business, Keys Roofing, without being duly registered or certified” by the state. In previous cases, Morales has advertised using the names A-Plus Roofing, Affordable Roofing and Paul Brown Roof Repairs.

You can check if someone is a licensed contractor registered with the Monroe County Building Department by going to http://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/DocumentCenter/View/12353/Registered-and-Active-Contractors?bidId. You can also search for licensed contractors at www.myfloridalicense.com, DBPR’s website.

 

Contact: Public Information Officer Larry Kahn, (305) 289-2899.

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