Greensburg police arrest Unity plumber on fraud charge
Greensburg police arrested a plumber who they said took $13,900 from a city resident and failed to replace a sewer line.
Mark Loughran, 52, of Unity, who operates ML Plumbing, was arrested on a home improvement fraud charge.
The Westminster Avenue resident told police she hired Loughran in June to remove a clay sewer line and replace it. The original estimate was about $9,900 and Loughran charged an additional $4,000, authorities said.
Sewage backed up in the home’s basement in December, and another contractor confirmed that clay pipe had not been replaced, according to court papers. A quote for the job by the other contractor came in at $7,500.
An arrest warrant was issued for Loughran in February when the charge was filed and he was recently arrested.
Loughran has a criminal history dating to the 1990s, according to online court records. A bench warrant letter was sent to him in mid-February after he apparently did not show up for a pretrial conference in a separate home improvement fraud case in Hempfield, according to online court records. He previously served jail time on theft and home improvement fraud charges.
ML Plumbing has an F rating from the Better Business Bureau. An alert on their website from September states that consumers have made complaints and the company had not responded to them.
Anyone with information on Loughran’s whereabouts is asked to call Greensburg police at 724-834-3800.
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has been working at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.
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