BUTLER — A man who is a contractor will spend the next three to six months in prison after taking thousands of dollars from a Cranberry Township man without making agreed-upon improvements to his home.

Domenic Carmen Tedeschi, 48, of Butler pleaded guilty to theft by deception and was sentenced Tuesday by Judge William Shaffer to prison. Tedeschi also will serve five years of probation after his release and must repay the victim $21,725.

According to police documents, Robert Tichauer hired Tedeschi last year to build a sunroom onto his home in Cranberry.

Tedeschi did start on the project but stopped in September after doing “very little to no work” despite being paid more than $20,000. He then ducked daily attempts by Tichauer to recoup his money, going as far as to lie about having a heart attack and needing life-saving surgery.

As police documents said, Tedeschi was “avoiding him because he had spent the money Tichauer had given him for the job.”

Tedeschi, who acknowledged having a criminal history that includes similar offenses, said he has cleaned up his act in the past six years. He said this was a “regrettable incident” and that it occurred because he had other problems that “snowballed.”

“I try to live a different life now, but I made a mistake,” Tedeschi said in apologizing to Tichauer.

Tedeschi said he's “lined up” work to earn money to pay back Tichauer.

Tichauer also spoke in court, telling the judge that he wants his money back because he cannot afford to make his planned improvements without it.

“It's a lot of money,” he said.

But he's more worried that the work Tedeschi referred to could include deception of other potential customers.

“I trusted him ... there were these stories about his son and a heart attack,” Tichauer said. “I'm afraid he's deceiving more now. He's not even a contractor.”

Tichauer alleged that after this happened to him, he checked and found that Tedeschi did not have a contractor's license.

Tedeschi asked the judge to postpone his prison time because he has a surgery on his leg. But the judge denied that request saying that if Tedeschi presented documentation from his doctor confirming the surgery, he would permit a furlough for Tedeschi from prison.