Lawsuit filed against local contractor

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A local contractor faces a lawsuit from the state. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed court papers against Brian Robinson, the owner of Apex Construction.    

News10NBC first told you about the many complaints against Robinson last year.  He’s accused of defrauding dozens of customers. 

Schneiderman became aware of Robinson because of the number of complaints to the Attorney General’s Office. 

The lawsuit aims to get back thousands the Attorney General says Robinson owes customers, thousands in fines, and a $100,000 dollar bond if Robinson wants to ever run a business in the state again. 

”He cashed the check within 2 hours,” said Russell Shaner, who hired Brian Robinson to plow his driveway last winter.

“The first snow never heard from him,” Shaner said.

Shaner said he found Robinson on an online referral site called Thumbtack.

”As it turned out, they had complaints on him and took him off their site,” Shaner said. “He changed the name and was back on.”

It was so late in the season that Shaner says he didn’t question Robinson. He was happy he’d found someone.

“I like to think I’m a reasonably intelligent and informed person,” Shaner said. “It really ticked me off that I did dally for it so quickly.”

We tried to talk to Robinson. We went to his last known address, but a neighbor told us no one by the name of Brian lived at the home.

“Apex Contracting and Brian Robinson were taking money from a number of consumers and then not performing the services,” said Ted O’Brien, Assistant Attorney General-In-Charge of the Rochester Regional Office.

The New State attorney general filed a lawsuit against Robinson after receiving numerous complaints about him. He accused of bilking 34 consumers out of $24,000.

“People who enter into agreements to have work done are entitled to have the services provide,” O’Brien said.

Robinson is scheduled to appear in State Supreme Court to respond to the lawsuit on September 20th. If you think you have been victimized by him or anyone, you can call the Attorney General’s hotline at 1-800-771-7755.