Former contractor gets 40 months in prison

A contractor who ripped off more than a dozen Orange County homeowners, including one from Newport Beach, was sentenced Friday to more than three years in prison and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands in restitution.

Ira Jay Messing, 61, was sentenced after his guilty plea in April to 15 felony counts of diverting construction funds, one count of grand theft with a white-collar crime enhancement and ordered to pay $845,700 in restitution.

Between October 2003 and December 2005, Messing contracted with homeowners to install sunrooms in their homes through his business, Hall of Fame Design and Remodeling. He took $670,000 from the homeowners and did little if any work on the homes, sometimes using the cash to finish older contracts. The homeowners were left to hire another contractor to complete the work.

Messing closed his company in December, 2005, and declared bankruptcy two months later. He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.

— Joseph Serna