PORT ORANGE, Fla. – A man once celebrated as a hero in Volusia County is expected to be sentenced on Tuesday for scamming people out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Steve Parker has admitted guilt to 12 felony charges after Port Orange police accused him of pretending to be a contractor and taking money from hurricane victims.
Authorities arrested Parker in October 2023 after they said a local family, who hired him, reported that the promised work was never completed. Investigators also discovered he was not a licensed contractor.
Police said more residents reported him, and after months of investigating, the State Attorney’s Office charged him in seven cases.
“Didn’t surprise me because he was calling himself a contractor, using somebody else’s contracting license, so he knew what he was doing,” Gwen Wakeman said.
Wakeman and her mother, Nancy Moore-Fabian, were the first family to report Parker in October 2023 before he was arrested.
Moore-Fabian said they gave Parker close to $74,000 in FEMA funds to fix their house, only for little work to get done.
“None of that came back. Steve offered nothing, and you know, FEMA’s not going to come back and give us the money just because a contractor took it from us,” Moore-Fabian said.
Investigators said that during the schemes, Parker used the license and identification of another Steve Parker, who is an actual contractor in South Florida.
Before his arrest, Parker was hailed a local hometown hero by the city for fixing up senior citizens and veterans’ homes damaged in the 2022 hurricanes. He claimed to be doing it with his own money.
News 6 met Parker once at a veteran’s homecoming in 2022 after Parker rebuilt his house, and another time when News 6 honored him with a “Getting Results Award.”
Parker faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for his most serious charge, which is organizing a scheme to defraud greater than $50,000.
Tuesday’s sentencing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m.
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