The Honorable Judge Joseph Kalashian today sentenced John Kochevar, 62 from Visalia, to pay $15,000 in fines for contracting without a license on several projects in Visalia. On July 14, 2006 in a related case, the Honorable Judge Darryl Fergusen sentenced Oscar Bingham, 53 from Visalia, to four years and eight months suspended state prison time, 365 days local time and imposed $60,912.22 in restitution and an additional $500 fine.

In conjunction with the Contractor’s State Licensing Board, the Tulare County District Attorney Consumer Fraud Investigations Unit uncovered the scheme the two used to fraudulently misrepresent to customers that they were licensed contractors. Both John Kochevar and Oscar Bingham used the contractor’s license number of a man from La Crescenta, California, William Covey, when pulling permits from the City of Visalia Planning Department and when writing up contracts with customers.

John Kochevar was convicted of nine counts of filing false documents at the Visalia Planning Department, three counts of contracting using another’s license without permission, two counts of contracting without a license, four counts of forging William Covey’s signature, and one count of worker’s compensation fraud for employing workers on his job sites without paying for insurance. John Kochevar was prosecuted for contracting without a license at Diamond Nails and El Rosal restaurant in the shopping center on Noble between County Center and Demaree. He was also prosecuted for a separate contract at a private residence in Visalia. Kochevar pled no contest to the charges.

Oscar Bingham was prosecuted for projects at six different private residences in and around Visalia. He was convicted of four counts of contracting with William Covey’s license without permission, one count of diversion of construction funds and one count of contracting without a license. Bingham pled no contest to the charges.

The case was investigated by Tulare County District Attorney Investigator Mark Lopez and CSLB investigators Jeff Miller and Carl Vega. The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Nichols. For questions, please contact Don Gallian at (559) 733-6411.