“I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,” former Beattie customer says. Another former Beattie employee speaks out

More people are coming forward and sharing their experiences with Beattie Development.

WINK News has been digging into the construction company for months, investigating allegations that owner Paul Beattie, was getting paid for work he never finished.

On Monday, WINK News Reporter Olivia Jean spoke with a former Beattie Development employee and four former Beattie Development customers.

The former Beattie Development employee worked there for 11 months and said after working at Beattie Development, he will never return to construction work ever again.

“That pretty much killed my career in construction,” the former employee said.

He also said he had a tough time speaking up because he claims people would get fired if they did.

“Every time someone spoke up, they just got rid of them,” he said, which is a claim WINK News has heard before.

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One thing’s for sure: A lot of people say they have been impacted by Beattie Development.

Kristen and Matt Kramer are out more than $300,000 dollars; and Tracey and Michael Garambone are out more than $150,000 dollars.

“All that money that you know, like that, the nest egg that you have, you know. And we had to use that,” said Tracey.

“It just sucks to be at this stage of life and going. I don’t have any money in the bank anymore. In fact, I don’t even have a house to live in,” said Kristen. “He wanted over $100k in escalation costs and there was still $150k unaccounted for.”

Both couples say they had to ask Beattie for invoices. He would reluctantly give them. They say it showed charges for work not done, the construction mistakes and double charges.

Beattie’s reputation at the time was great.

“We’re smart people, and we thought we had vetted him, right? You know, we looked a lot on social media. We went to the Better Business Bureau. I mean, we’re doing a lot of looking and digging, and everything was really good. And then all of a sudden things started to like, and there were so many warning signs in the very beginning,” Kristen said.

“My wife researched and Beattie seemed to have good, good reputation. We like the model,” Michael said.

Kristen explain there were days she could not get out of bed because of “shame, embarrassment and depression.”

The liens are just another part of the story. According to Kristen and Matt, Beattie put a lien on their project.

“So we have that lien on our house, which is 271,000 in the past two months, we’ve paid over $40,000 cash to other vendors and subcontractors and suppliers that he never paid,” said Kristen.

For Tracy and Michael, they say subcontractors who hadn’t been paid placed liens on their home.

“We had, you know, five, five or six liens on this house at one point,” said Micheal. “You put trust in someone, you know, someone that is supposed to be reputable. You know, they’re the expert. They’re the builder. You pay them what they ask, and you still don’t get the house that you expect.”

“I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, except that he is my worst enemy, and I don’t know if he understands what it’s like to not have a home, right? It’s more than a house. It’s a home,” said Kristen.

“This guy has cost families a fortune in time, money and heart ache and he cannot be allowed to do this to others under a different entity. It is outright criminal,” Michael said.

Both couples discussed the non-disparagement agreement, stating Paul Beattie would ask them to delete social media posts if they didn’t make him or his company look good. “They said, ‘we need you just to take the post down.’ And I said, I need you just to build my house,” Kristen said.

“I think, because we live down here, we were always here. We were always, if we had to go the office, we were we’re always just watching the house and progressing,” Tracey said.

The good news is the Garambone’s have moved in, but have done a lot of the unfinished work by Beattie themselves.

As for the Kramers, their new contractor says they should only have to wait another month.

“That man, Paul Beattie, is not going to steal our joy and our take our power away from us anymore. I mean, he’s taken a lot of money, but he’s not taking that,” Kristen said.

In the meantime, WINK News will continue to press Cape Coral police every day to explain why they raided Beattie Development last Wednesday. As soon as we get an answer, we’ll bring it to you.