John William Parks was sentenced to 10 years in prison for scamming Arizona seniors out of more than one hundred thousand dollars. Parks pled guilty to Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices as part of a plea agreement. The judge also ordered Parks to pay back $136,815 in restitution to the 10 victims. The Attorney General’s Office prosecuted the case after joint investigations by the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, the Phoenix Police Department, and the Mesa Police Department.
AZ ROC Director Jeff Fleetham said, “For over 40 years, the Parks and Williamson families made headlines in Arizona for taking advantage of residents. Thanks to the hard work of our investigators, law enforcement, and Attorney General Brnovich, one member of the Parks family is facing the consequences of willfully violating Arizona’s laws.”
From November 2013 through October 2015, Parks made repeated visits to 55+ mobile home parks throughout the Phoenix area. The Defendant approached elderly victims at their homes unsolicited and misrepresented the need for repair work, often to the roof. Parks performed little to no work, and what work was performed, was later verified by an inspector with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors to be either incorrect or unnecessary. Parks would return to the same homes over and over again to grossly overcharge the victims for the services performed. In at least one case, Parks charged the victim almost four times the value of her mobile home for work that was never done. At one point, Parks was listed as one of AZ ROC’s Top Ten Most Wanted Contractors.
The Court found these aggravating factors offset any possibility of leniency in sentencing for Parks:
1) Age and vulnerability of the victims
2) Multiple dates of offenses
3) Multiple victims
4) Parks committed the crimes for pecuniary gain
5) Parks was on probation at the time the offenses were committed for similar conduct
6) Emotional and financial harm to the victims
7) Parks showed little to no remorse for his actions