When a contractor takes a customer's money and then fails to deliver the work, police and prosecutors rarely take up the matter and investigate it as a crime.

The rip-offs usually get pushed to civil court, and based on the thousands of complaints that come to KIRO Team 7 Investigators on this topic, the customer usually gets shorted a lot.

Homeowner Allen Tucker just might get his $1,080 dollars back. He paid that much to unlicensed landscape contractor Brian Bashore who in return promised to build a retaining wall and fill in Tucker's sloping backyard.

Bashore never came back, so Tucker called KIRO Team 7 Investigators who found out Bashore had swindled dozens of victims out of tens of thousands of dollars.

KIRO 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne confronted Bashore last summer.

Halsne: "You didn't show up for our meeting. Can we talk about the folks you owe money to? When are you going to pay them back?"

Bashore: "I have arranged that. At the moment I'm on my way to work, so I really don't have time to talk."

Halsne: "How long have you been working as an unlicensed contractor?"

Bashore: "I'm not. I paid a $1,000 fine and I'm no longer working as a contractor."

After we aired a series of exposes on Bashore, Pierce County prosecutors charged the Port Orchard handyman with third-degree theft. After a year of delays, to avoid a criminal trial, Bashore agreed that any jury would find him guilty and he pleaded.

The court ordered Bashore to pay back Tucker, though the debt might come in payments of $25 or $30 a month. Tucker is glad he spent the past year-and-a-half fighting to be heard.

"Be persistent if you have to go after them. Don't take 'No' for an answer from prosecutors," said Tucker.

This was a little unusual because just several hours before taking money from Mr. Tucker, Mr. Bashore had filed for bankruptcy, which let us know he was acting with criminal intent when he took the money.

Pierce County prosecutor Kevin Benton says proving intent is a tough burden to meet in most contractor rip-offs.

"We're well aware that these people are out there and this type of activity occurs and the effect that has on citizens. They are very frustrating cases for citizens and for us," said Benton.

For the record, just so we're clear, Brian Bashore does not have a contractor's license. The state pulled it and fined him after numerous complaints of his behavior.

Bashore will not spend any time in jail unless he fails to pay restitution or commits a new crime in the next year.