(from news release)
A Sartell man has been charged with defrauding four homeowners in three counties of a total amount of money exceeding $200,000.
The counties where the alleged crimes took place are Stearns, Sherburne and Isanti.
Travis Peterlin, 42, would allegedly tell customers his company couldn’t do specific jobs but that he himself could do them on the side. At that time, he worked as an estimator for a local home-improvement company.
According to the charges, Peterlin would take down payments from the homeowners and then fail to complete the work. The alleged swindles occurred between the fall of 2022 and the summer of 2023.
In the press release, Peterlin is alleged to have convinced a woman in Isanti County to loan him more than $50,000 to buy a pickup and trailer, and then he never bought them. From that same woman, he is alleged to have collected checks worth thousands of dollars for work never performed or that exceeded by far what a project should have cost.
The woman told an investigator she had a feeling she was being swindled or overcharged but was too embarrassed to tell her children. Court records state the woman was swindled out of about $143,000.
Peterlin also swindled a St. Cloud man out of $68,000 in checks. The victim said he did not remember writing the checks and thought they might have been stolen from his bedroom. The charges allege the checks were all deposited into Peterlin’s bank account.
In that case, Peterlin is also accused of convincing that man to write out a $15,000 check for a Habitat for Humanity home-improvement grant application, one that did not exist.
The charges against Peterlin, in some cases, also involve alleged financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
Peterlin has court appearances scheduled for October and November. Court records show he was fired from the company in July of 2023 when his alleged fraudulent activities came to light.
