Contractor accused of scamming church

Good evening, everyone. I'm Linda Hurtado and I'm Kaylee Hines. Thanks for joining us. First here at five, a Pinellas County contractor is behind bars tonight, accused of taking nearly a million dollars from a Clearwater church for a new building that he never finished. Fox 13's Kylie Jones shows us the empty lot and where police say that money went. After more than three and a half years of waiting, all that the Unity Church of Clearwater has is this concrete slab behind me. A new church was supposed to be built here, but church leadership says the contractor, who they paid almost a million dollars, never finished the job. Back in 2022, the Unity Church of Clearwater sold a big chunk of its property for the Discovery Academy of Science Charter School to be built. The church plans to build a new church on the remaining property on Nursery Rd. The senior minister says in 2023 they hired Custom Building Solutions owned by William Botelho for the $4.1 million project. Clearwater police say the church paid about $832,000 up front for supplies and subcontractors to get the project started. But detectives say all Botelho had to show for his work was a fence around the construction site. There was always one One reason or another why the project couldn't proceed as planned, after they did eventually jump through all the hoops necessary in order to start construction, that's when they were told that we actually need more funds to start the project and we need to renegotiate the contract. Finally, in March of this year, the church reported the case to police. Detectives say bank records revealed that only $95,000 was actually used towards the project, meaning about $736,000 was left. According to an arrest affidavit, some of that remaining money paid for personal expenses, Botelho's condo association, a home mortgage, checks written to himself, and a Mercedes G-Wagon. Detectives say Botelho claimed the church was in breach of contract. The breach of contract was on his behalf. We fulfilled our contract. At the end, he demanded an addendum to the contract of additional $1,000,000 plus with no documentation. That was the part we did not enter into. According to Pinellas County Public Records, Botelho also has two open civil cases, including one where a client is accusing him of breach of contract. Botelho is in jail right now, charged with grand theft over $100,000. In Clearwater, Kylie Jones, FOX 13 News.