Convicted North Texas roofing swindler back in jail, accused in Fort Worth area cases
A suspected roofing con artist who is accused of swindling Arlington and Mesquite homeowners of more than $18,000 was in custody Friday after he was captured by authorities in Dallas.
Joshua Bell, 36, was in the Dallas County Jail on Friday.
Mesquite police and officials with the U.S. Marshals North Texas Fugitive Task Force arrested Bell about 10 a.m. Friday in Dallas.
KDFW-TV reported based on public records that Bell has been conducting the same scam on older residents for more than a decade.
In the most recent cases, police in Arlington and Mesquite had issued arrest warrants for Bell, who reportedly has ties to the Austin and Gainesville areas. It was believed he traveled frequently from Austin to Dallas and could have been staying in hotels in and around the Dallas area, Mesquite police said in a news release.
The alleged fraud in Mesquite involved Bell coercing an elderly Vietnam veteran over the course of several days to pay him $17,000 for unnecessary roofing repairs. The scheme began on Jan. 31, Mesquite police said, and the department became aware of it on Feb. 4.
In Arlington, Bell is accused of telling a pair of homeowners he needed to do roofing work before their warranty expired, leading them to write him a $1,200 check, police said. He never completed any work, according to the warrant.
Arlington police did not release any other details.
In both cases, Bell used the name “Michael,” believed to be his middle name, authorities said.
“After reviewing the evidence from our case and consulting with the Mesquite Police Department, we believe this same individual is responsible for a similar offense,” Arlington police said in a Facebook post this week.
The Mesquite and Arlington police departments shared photos of Bell and his silver 2019 Chevy Silverado Z71 Trail Boss Edition.
Arlington police also shared a video of Bell captured by the Ring doorbell on the homeowner’s house. The video shows him ringing the doorbell and telling the person who answers the door he’s there to check the roof. He shakes the individual’s hand and is invited inside.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Michael,” he can be heard saying.
The homeowners wrote him the $1,200 check, Arlington police said, but as soon as he left, something felt off to them. They called the roofing company — which they had used in the past — and learned no one had been sent to their home that day, police said.
A manager for the company looked at the Ring video and didn’t recognize the man who claimed his name was Michael, police said. Company employees also checked the roof and determined no work had been done.
In Mesquite, however, Bell completed work like putting caulk on shingles and “very basic unnecessary repairs,” the department said. He convinced the Vietnam veteran to pay him $17,000 for the repairs, police said, saying her insurance company would reimburse her for the costs.
KDFW-TV reported Bell was sentenced to 20 years for theft and burglary in the same roofing contractor scam.
He was released in 2011, but he started more scams in Cooke and Grayson counties only to be caught again, sentenced to nine years and released in 2016, records show.
He was arrested in 2019 in Denton County for theft of property and also had a warrant in that county for failure to appear in court, according to the news report.
KDFW-TV reported he never showed up last year for a court appearance in Flower Mound, where he was accused of conning 77-year-old Melba Hayes out of $1,200 on a roofing job.
Melba Hayes died from cancer in 2019, and Bell has not repaid her, her son said.
“There are evil people in the world and they do this all the time,” Charles Hayes told KDFW-TV. “And it just seems like the justice system never catches up to them.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 3:04 PM.
