State busts 11 unlicensed contractors in Manatee

MANATEE COUNTY — The Florida Department of Financial Services, after a three-day sting operation, charged 11 people in Manatee County for unlicensed contracting and engaging in construction work without workers' compensation insurance.

The sting called for contractors to perform services at an uninhabited home in Manatee County, according to a release from the Department of Financial Services. The Division of Insurance Fraud, in partnership with the Department of Business & Professional Regulation, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, Holmes Beach Police Department and Manatee County Code Enforcement executed the sting.

Each of the 11 suspects was fined by local code enforcement, the release states, and each suspect was issued a cease and desist order. The defendants are:

· Jarrod David Roan
· David James Wollard
· Michael Dean Mosley II
· Julian Lowell Culbreath
· Lee Entler
· Michael Todd Blumin
· Ernest Alexis
· Franklin Nelson Childress
· Richard Murphy
· Warren Edward Howard
· James Mark Todd

Each workers' compensation charge carries a prison sentence of up to five years, if convicted, and there's an additional year for a first time unlicensed contractor charge. Repeat offenders convicted of an unlicensed contractor charge face up to five years in prison.