Man Charged With Taking Payments

For Roofing Jobs, Not Doing Work

A four-time convicted felon has been charged with fraud, accused of accepting payment for installing roofs, then not following through, District Attorney John Muehl announced today.

Gary R. Murphy, 65, of 6717 Route 7, Town of Maryland, is charged with grand larceny yesterday in Otsego Town Court and was returned to Herkimer County Jail, where he is facing other charges.

In September, the D.A.’s Office received a complaint from a Town of Maryland resident that Murphy was paid $1,000 and given a $400 canoe in August in exchange for putting a metal roof on a garage.   But investigators are alleging Murphy never bought the material, did none of the work, and kept the money and the canoe.

Investigators also discovered two similar situations involving Murphy that occurred last summer, one in Laurens and the other in Fly Creek.

Murphy, in jail in Herkimer since Aug. 19, was charged locally grand larceny in the fourth degree, a class E felony, and scheme to defraud in the first degree, a class E felony, in the Maryland and Laurens cases.

Murphy was arraigned before Otsego Town Justice Gary M. Kuch and remanded without bail due to his multiple previous felony convictions, investigators said. He will be brought back to the Otsego Town Court on Dec. 16, 2015.

If convicted, Murphy faces up to eight years in prison on the two felony charges.

. Muehl and ADA William C. Green are prosecuting the case.