Unlicensed contractor arrested, accused of not completing paid landscaping work

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Conrado Arcadio Torres is accused of defrauding Utah County residents of $20,000.
• Torres allegedly took payments for landscaping projects he didn't complete or refund.
• Victims report hiring Torres via social media and experiencing incomplete or damaged work.

EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An American Fork man was arrested Tuesday and accused of taking more than $20,000 from residents to do landscaping work and then not completing the projects.

Conrado Arcadio Torres, 30, was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of three counts of communications fraud.

"At this time I have spoken with four separate, unrelated individuals with similar incidents regarding Torres' work practices. Each victim has detailed how they paid Torres to perform projects around their residents. After paying Torres, he has made several excuses as to why he is unable to fulfill his commitments to the projects," the arresting officer wrote in a police booking affidavit.

"Torres is not a licensed contractor, yet he continues to pick up jobs in the Utah County area that are well outside his ability to perform efficiently. Several individuals have reported they paid Torres for work that he was unable or unwilling to finish. Torres has been unable to pay the individuals back after showing he is unable to complete the projects that were given to him."

One victim who lives in Eagle Mountain told police that he "hired Torres through a social media platform to work on landscaping projects" and has paid him $7,200 for supplies and other expenses, the affidavit states. The victim "claimed Torres has done some work, but did not finish the projects."

A second victim in Eagle Mountain told police she hired Torres in 2024 to do landscaping and paid him $5,000 but he did not finish the job.

"Victim 2 had to hire another contractor for $2,250 to fix the mistakes and damage Torres caused to her yard. Victim 2 ultimately lost $7,250," the affidavit states.

A third victim, also in Eagle Mountain, paid Torres $3,000 up front and then an additional $3,000 when he claimed he was just about done with the project, according to the affidavit.

"When she returned home, she observed the project was not close to being done. Victim 3 attempted to work with Torres for several months to have the work completed. Torres continued to make excuses as to why he couldn't work on her projects. Victim 3 ultimately paid Torres $6,000 for work that was unfinished," the arrest report states.

A neighbor of victim 3 had her sprinklers broken by Torres, the affidavit says. The repair for that was $500.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Pat Reavy

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Pat Reavy interned with KSL in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL or Deseret News since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.