Contractor accused of failing to do work at West Deer church after cashing $15K check

West Deer police charged a home improvement contractor with multiple counts of felony theft after the pastor of a local church reported that the contractor never showed up to do the work after cashing a $15,000 check.

Ronald Lee Pirring, 61, of Fairley Road in Ross, was charged with felony counts of theft by deception, deceptive or fraudulent business practices and home improvement fraud, according to his arrest papers.

Police charged Pirring on Feb. 3 but were unable to take him into custody and a warrant was issued for his arrest, according to court officials.

He was arrested by Ross Township police on Wednesday and charged with a felony count of flight to avoid apprehension. He was released from the Allegheny County Jail the following day after posting a $500 cash bond, court records show.

Pirring faces a preliminary hearing before District Judge Tom Swan on March 16 for the charges filed by West Deer and Ross police.

Investigators said the pastor of Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic parish in West Deer reported to police on Jan. 31 that he hired Pirring to build a two-car garage on the church’s property.

Pirring was paid an advance of $15,250, which is about half of the total estimate for the project, according to a criminal complaint.

The pastor provided police with a copy of the contract Pirring signed in November, along with the cancelled check showing it was cashed, the complaint said.

But the priest said Pirring never showed up to do the work and did not return multiple telephone messages seeking an explanation, the complaint said.

The pastor told the Tribune-Review that he was surprised by Pirring’s actions.

“We hired him in the past and he did a very good job,” said the Rev. James Holland. “The quality was good and he completed it in the time he said he would. So, I really didn’t have any qualms about writing him a check for half the amount up front for this project.”

But Holland said he became suspicious when Pirring did not return telephone messages and he was unable to resolve the matter after getting in touch with his daughter, the complaint said.

Holland said the church was able to return materials that were already bought for the project.

The telephone number for Pirring’s business office was disconnected when they tried calling him and his cellphone would not take messages, police said.

An online search for Pirring’s business shows an office along Butler Street in Lawrenceville. The website for the business has been taken down.

Contractors in Pennsylvania are required to register wit the state Attorney General’s office, but officials there caution that registration “is not an endorsement of their honesty or quality of work,” according to information on the contractor registry website.

Pirring’s business is registered with the state and no complaints have been filed against it, according to a spokesperson for the attorney general.

In September, as residents were rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Ida, Attorney General Josh Shapiro issued an advisory outlining some of the measures customers can take to avoid being ripped off by contractors.

Shapiro advises, among other things, that customers ask for and check a contractor’s references, get more than one bid for a job and check if complaints have been filed against a company with the Better Business Bureau.

The state’s Consumer Protection Act also forbids contractors from requesting more than one-third of a contract price totaling more than $5,000 before finishing a project along with other, according to the attorney general’s office.

The attorney general’s office received 4,565 complaints against contractors in 2021 and filed 30 legal actions, a spokesperson said.

A search for Pirring’s business shows that that the company has not been accredited by the Better Business Bureau.

Record show his company has a “C+” rating and that a complaint was filed on Aug. 17 in which a customer wrote that they were unable to contact Pirring to make promised repairs to cracks that formed in a concrete patio installed the previous summer.

No other complaints are listed for the company during past three years.

Court records show that Pirring pleaded guilty to felony theft by deception in 1997 and and was sentenced to three years probation.

He also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation in 1997 for four counts of misdemeanor theft by deception and a count of writing bad checks.

Pirring also is known to use the aliases Fromm and Fromming as a last name, according to court records.

He does not have an attorney listed in court documents.