Chicago contractor in custody after targeting elderly homeowners with remodeling scam: prosecutors

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Chicago contractor is back in custody after he allegedly scammed multiple elderly homeowners who hired him to remodel their homes.

Homes across the South and West Sides of Chicago are now in much worse condition than what Mark Diamond promised they would be in.

Diamond is back behind bars Thursday night as a district judge granted the government's emergency order to get him back in jail as he awaits trial.

Prosecutors said Diamond violated terms of his bond, allegedly scamming another senior citizen out of hundreds of thousands of dollars while promising to remodel their home.

"I knew the day was coming," said Director of Illinois Anti-Foreclosure Coalition Rev. Robin Hood. "A predator don't know anything else besides being a predator... Mark Diamond was the perfect predator of senior citizens."

Reverend Hood has close ties to this case as his late aunt was a victim of Diamond's alleged home repair scam.

The family paid him more than $100,000 to fix their home. Now, years later, it still looks the same.

"He came and got a dumpster and told us to clean everything out the second floor," victim Kina Smith said. "We did that and then Mark Diamond just disappeared."

There's a similar story for the dozens of other victims which prosecutors said were targeted by Diamond and his partners.

Court documents show one example, saying Diamond has taken approximately $203,000 in cash from an elderly victim and caused her to take out four loans, totaling approximately $762,000 for Diamond's benefit.

One of the victims in court Thursday didn't want to be identified, but was relieved to see the judge put him back in jail.

"I'm glad he won't be able to victimize anybody else and I do know he victimized a lot of people," the victim said. "I thought I could absolutely trust him. He was nice, he was kind, he was considerate."

The judge denied the defense's attempt for Diamond to at least remain on house arrest before the trial, with the judge saying there is no condition or combinations of conditions that can protect the elderly from him.

Reverend Hood hopes justice is served, because the impact of these allegations are felt across generations of families.

"From 2015 to today, we're still looking at the damages this man has done and he's been doing this for over 30 years," Hood said.

There are still some pretrial motions to handle, and it is currently not clear when Diamond will stand trial for the case.