A contractor who ripped off customers by taking money for work he never performed was sentenced Friday to three years in state prison
Howard J. Frame, 39, of the 300 block of Virginia Avenue in the Thorofare section of West Deptford, also was ordered to pay a total of $8,014 in restitution to five victims. Frame took payments from three of the victims for tree- and concrete removal projects but never did the work, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office.
The other two cases involved the theft of tools during a burglary and a stolen motorcycle in Frame's possession.
Frame pleaded guilty Aug. 20 to three counts of theft by illegal retention, and one count each of burglary and receiving stolen property. The crimes happened between September 2010 and April 2012 in four Gloucester County towns: Westville, Greenwich, West Deptford and Deptford.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, state Superior Court Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. sentenced Frame to concurrent (overlapping) prison terms on each of the charges. Frame also received a concurrent three-year prison term after pleading guilty Aug. 20 to resisting arrest during an attempt to serve a warrant in April 2012. In addition, he was sentenced to serve 18 months, concurrent to the other prison sentences, for violation of probation, stemming from a 2010 theft by illegal retention case.
