Two home repairmen have been sentenced to prison for failing to report more than $1.5 million in income earned from overcharging elderly clients for home and car repairs, according to an announcement by Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
David Angelo Quick, 43, of Charlotte, received a sentence of 20 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $296,300 in restitution to the IRS. Tony Joshua Christo, 34, formerly of Charlotte and now residing in Florida, was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment and one year of supervised release. Christo must pay $227,548 in restitution to the IRS.
Rodney Hopkins, Inspector in Charge of the Atlanta Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), which oversees North Carolina, and Donald “Trey” Eakins, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Charlotte Field Office joined U.S. Attorney Ferguson in making the announcement.
Court documents show that between 2018 and 2021 Quick and Christo provided home repair and improvement services as well as car repair services primarily to elderly clients. The defendants collectively received more than $1.5 million from these customers but did not report any of this income on their federal tax returns filed with the IRS.
Quick owned and operated David Quick Home Improvements but was not a licensed contractor. His business offered roofing, painting, driveway construction and other home services; his brother Christo worked with him.
According to court records, Quick would often approach elderly individuals about fixing damage to their cars—frequently in supermarket parking lots—and then persuade them that their homes had additional problems he could fix with Christo’s help. The pair charged large sums for work such as painting garage floors or paving driveways.
The investigation found that while both men received payment for these services from elderly clients—often at inflated prices—they failed to report any income from these activities on their federal tax returns.
"The defendants will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility," according to the announcement.
The case was investigated by IRS-CI and USPIS. Assistant U.S. Attorney Caryn Finley prosecuted the case.
