The Nevada State Contractors Board is issuing a strong warning to residents, especially senior citizens, as well as landscape and paver contractors in and around the Reno/Sparks areas regarding illegal contracting scams being conducted frequently by Lucas Hunter Schopper.
The Board says Schopper, who claims to own a company called “Diamond Pavers,” falsely uses licensed contractors’ license numbers to perform work related to landscaping, concrete and masonry. They say Schopper claims the companies affiliated with the valid license numbers are divisions of Diamond Pavers, which they are not.
Schopper posts and publishes flyers around town, which claim to offer significant discounts to those willing to pay him immediately upon bidding the work. He consistently uses the e-mail renopavers@yahoo.com as well as the phone number 775-378-3588.
The Board says Schopper was arrested Sept. 18 on a warrant for contracting without a license and diversion of funds – both felonies – as well as for false use of a license – a gross misdemeanor - from the Sparks Justice Court. He has since posted bail, which was set at $5,000.
“The Contractors Board is encouraging every member of the public, especially seniors, to memorize Schopper’s photo and to avoid business with him at all costs,” advised NSCB Executive Officer Margi A. Grein. “Unscrupulous individuals like him are the reason we advocate so passionately for the protection of the public. We ask for the public’s vigilance in verifying their contractors are properly licensed, but most importantly immediately reporting any unlicensed activity to the Board or local authorities to provide the best opportunity to take Mr. Schopper and those of his kind off our streets.”
The Board says Schopper targets unsuspecting homeowners by presenting himself as a licensed contractor. His most recent victim paid Schopper over $24,000; however, substandard workmanship led the victim to pay an additional out-of-pocket cost of $25,000 to repair and finalize the poor work he performed. Schopper’s victims have paid as much as 50 percent up front with little or no work performed.
The Contractors Board issued Schopper a C-10 landscape contracting license in Oct. 2007 under the business name “Bella Terra Professional Landscaping Services;” however, the Board revoked his license in 2009 after finding him guilty of abandoning a construction project, failing to comply with the Board’s orders, receiving money and not performing commensurate work, acting beyond the scope of his license, committing a fraudulent or deceitful act, performing work that was not current with industry standards and failure to establish financial responsibility, among other violations.
Schopper plead guilty to contracting without a license and/or submitting a construction bid without a license in 2010, 2012 and 2015. Two of the three cases resulted in a suspended jail sentence of ten days, however, each case included an order to pay fines and costs; restitution of $711 was ordered in the 2015 sentencing. Schopper was arrested in February 2018 on four contractor law violations. Those charges are still pending.
If you have any information on Schopper, call the NSCB Unlicensed Contractor Hotline at (775) 850-7838.
(Nevada State Contractors Board contributed to this report.)
