Home Industries Law Irish national sentenced to 56 months in federal prison for home repair...

Irish national sentenced to 56 months in federal prison for home repair scheme

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PBN Staff

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04/07/2026

U.S. District Court — AN IRISH NATIONAL has been sentenced to more than four years in federal prison for his role in a traveling home repair scheme that bilked more than $1 million from homeowners. / COURTESY U.S. DISTRICT COURT

PROVIDENCE – An Irish national has been sentenced to more than four years in federal prison for his role in a traveling home repair scheme that bilked more than $1 million from homeowners, including in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island Charles C. Calenda announced Tuesday. In November, John O’Brien agreed to

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PROVIDENCE – An Irish national has been sentenced to more than four years in federal prison for his role in a traveling home repair scheme that bilked more than $1 million from homeowners, including in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island Charles C. Calenda announced Tuesday. In November, John O’Brien agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and forfeit $1.5 million and two pickup trucks under a plea agreement. O’Brien, 28, of Ireland, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. to 56 months in federal prison. He is expected to be deported when his sentence is finished. O'Brien was arrested on March 28, 2025, by Homeland Security Investigations for overstaying a tourist visa issued to him in 2021 as part of a joint investigation between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Warwick and East Providence police departments. The visa had expired in October 2021, officials said. According to court documents, O’Brien and others allegedly defrauded property owners by inducing them to pay for home repairs that were not needed and often not completed. O’Brien misrepresented the need for repairs and services, as well as the qualifications of his purported construction business. The scheme came to the attention of law enforcement when an 83-year-old Warwick resident complained to the Warwick Police Department that he had been defrauded by a contractor. The man reported that O’Brien told him that he observed cracks in his home's foundation while doing work in the neighborhood. O’Brien offered to professionally repair the foundation and collected $9,500. As work proceeded, O’Brien allegedly claimed that further damage was discovered, revised the costs for repairs and sought an additional $80,000. A home inspector hired by the U.S. Attorney’s Office later reviewed the property and found no evidence that the repairs were needed. The Warwick resident, Don Fife, a U.S. Air Force veteran, told WPRI-TV CBS 12 in April 2025 that O’Brien first approached him while working on a neighbor’s house. O’Brien offered to fix the cracking in Fife’s home foundation with no money down, only to ask for thousands of dollars two days later. “I wrote a check for $995, and then the next day there was more damage. And now he said … this is a $95,000 project,” Fife told WPRI-TV. Fife and the company settled for $80,000, however he felt uneasy. Later that day, Warwick police arrived in the neighborhood and arrested O’Brien. Fife told WPRI-TV that some of the employees walked to the back of his yard, took off their sweatshirts, left their tools and jumped his back fence to escape police. Other alleged victims, according to court documents, described similar interactions with O’Brien that began with unsolicited recommendations for small home repairs, followed by O’Brien’s purported discovery of major repairs needed, and often a representation that the homeowner’s foundation was in urgent need of repairs. It is estimated that this scheme has defrauded homeowners out of more than $1 million. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Taylor A. Dean and Sandra R. Hebert.