CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed suit alleging a Barbour County home improvement contractor accepted payments without a license to perform the requested work and in several instances never began the consumer’s project or performed the work in a poor manner.

The lawsuit targets Thomas Plumbing Heating & Air Conditioning; its operator, Oscar Thomas; and his wife and fellow participant, April Thomas. It outlines multiple consumer protection law violations and seeks a court order to permanently block the defendants from any future home contracting work either as an owner, employee, subcontractor or other means.

“Contractors must abide by the law and complete work in a fair and trustworthy manner,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “It is never acceptable to take money for a promised project with the intention of providing shoddy services or no work at all. Our office is adamant about protecting Mountain State consumers and ensuring that all businesses are in compliance with the law’s expectations.”

The lawsuit alleges Oscar Thomas, a Barbour County contractor who did business as Thomas Plumbing Heating & Air Conditioning, continued to accept home improvement jobs for many months after his state contractor’s license expired Dec. 17, 2016.

The lawsuit alleges Thomas collected thousands of dollars in down payments and never returned to begin work. Other projects were started, but never finished and left in such disarray that consumers had no choice but to hire others to complete, repair or totally redo the project.

Many consumers were instructed to make checks payable to April Thomas, who often accompanied her husband on the projects.

The Attorney General seeks full restitution for the affected consumers, a $5,000 penalty for each violation of the state’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act and full reimbursement to cover costs associated with the state’s investigation and litigation.

The lawsuit, filed in Randolph County Circuit Court, charges the defendants with engaging in home improvement, plumbing and HVAC contracting without a license, failure to notify consumers of the three-day right to cancel, failure to begin or complete work by the date promised and unfair and deceptive business practices.