A contractor long accused of taking advantage of unwitting seniors and retirees in Palm Beach County is now on the run from justice.
Three months after pleading guilty to two counts of filing fraudulent liens against a deceased woman’s home in South Florida, Andre Baptiste was ordered to surrender in Palm Beach County Circuit Court and begin serving his prison sentence. He never showed up.
Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer issued a warrant for Baptiste’s arrest on May 16, the day the 75-year-old was scheduled to return to court. In February, the judge had sentenced Baptiste to five years in prison, but said he would reduce the term to 18 months if Baptiste paid full restitution of $7,120 to the victim’s family and returned to court without committing any new violations of the law .
Baptiste paid back the victim’s family but never returned to court. County property records show Baptiste, a native of Trinidad, sold his home in Sherbrooke Estates near Florida’s Turnpike and Lantana Road in April for $1.2 million.
An attempt to reach Baptiste’s most recent attorney was not immediately successful.
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Contractor falsely claimed to be a licensed roofer and placed liens on houses
In recent years, Baptiste has been accused of falsely claiming to be a roofer. More than a dozen complaints have been filed against Baptiste with county and state licensing boards.
Investigators said Baptiste used the licenses of a dead roofer, one of his ex-wife and another of a Delray Beach roofer, while persuading homeowners to hire his company, B and B Roofing and General Contracting. Authorities also alleged that Baptiste demanded additional money from customers and placed liens on the homes of those who did not pay.
He is banned from getting a contractor’s license because of a 1995 arrest in Broward County on charges of insurance fraud and grand theft.
Baptiste placed two liens on the Boca Raton-area home of a woman who had hired him before her death in March 2021, according to an arrest report from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. A relative who managed the woman’s estate filed a criminal complaint in January 2022. , telling investigators that the liens were fraudulent.
Investigators say Baptiste filed a $4,000 lien claim in October 2021, despite receiving a $4,150 payment from the woman’s estate for a completed repair. When asked about the lien, Baptiste told investigators he owed more money and complained it was taking too long to pay the family, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
One of the woman’s daughters told investigators that Baptiste gave her mother an estimate of $46,000 to replace the entire roof. She said Baptiste tried to file a claim with her mother’s insurance company in December 2019, but the claim was repeatedly denied because damage from a 2017 hurricane was listed as the cause.
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Roofer told investigators he considered the estimate a “contract.”
The woman said she spoke with Baptiste about providing a new estimate and told him she would also request estimates from other contractors. Investigators say Baptiste provided a new estimate of $29,500. However, he told officers he did not provide written estimates and described the paperwork for the roofing work as a “contract.”
An attempt to reach a relative of the deceased woman was not immediately successful.
In a separate case, Baptiste pleaded guilty to two counts of using someone else’s license, was fined $2,000 and ordered to pay back two women who were targeted in his scheme.
State and county regulators fined Baptiste $17,500 for operating without a permit. His ex-wife and the Delray Beach licensed roofer both told investigators they did not give Baptiste permission to use their certifications.
Carlos Noguera, a retired Miami-Dade police officer who alleged Baptiste cheated him out of money for repairs to his Boynton Beach-area home, wrote a letter in February urging Susakauer to withdraw Baptiste’s plea deal.
Noguera wrote that Baptiste “has amassed a fortune in Palm Beach County by defrauding seniors with fraudulent contracts using the license of others, including a deceased contractor’s license, insurance fraud, forgeries and uttering forged documents.”
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @JuliusWhigham. Support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared in Palm Beach Post: Roofer who defrauded seniors flees Palm Beach County before landing in jail
