Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington announced the arraignments and indictments of Fred Lewis Senter Jr. Senter is accused of a construction scam that bilked more than 40 victims.
PITTSFIELD — A Pittsfield man who remains in jail for allegedly bilking customers in the Berkshires and across five states in a construction scam was indicted on 48 counts and arraigned in Berkshire Superior Court on Thursday.
Fred Lewis Senter Jr. allegedly stole more than $400,000 through false pretenses, Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington announced on Facebook.
Harrington said that the scam allegedly took place between February 2020 and September 2021, through his company, Northern Steel Buildings & Structures, LLC.
“Mr. Senter is accused of contracting and accepting payments from more than 40 victims across five different states to build steel structures with no intent of completing the work,” Harrington said, noting that Senter was first arrested and investigated by Pittsfield Police before State Police detectives attached to the DA’s office began their probe.
Harrington asks that any other potential victims contact local police or State Police detectives in her office.
Courtney Soto, of Pittsfield, said the backyard garage Senter was supposed to replace with a steel version is still deteriorating.
“It doesn’t sound good in terms of ever getting our money back,” she said of more than $9,000, a 50-percent deposit she said he stole.
Soto also said detectives are looking into some of Senter’s close associates to whom he gave the money and might have been spending it on luxury items.
Soto hoped to replace the garage on her property with a steel version built by Senter. “He looked us in the eye, talked to us about our family and his family,” Soto said. “He was a seemingly down-to-earth, nice guy.”
Senter’s alleged victims include multiple residents and businesses, a church and the Richmond Volunteer Fire Department. Police last year said they believed his reach extended possibly into at least one additional state.
Four Berkshire residents reached out to The Eagle in September and described how Senter lured them into trust with good eye contact and a charming manner as he took their 50-percent deposits and didn’t do the work. Senter, they said, used the pandemic and its supply chain problems to excuse his delays.
The victims said they had joined forces on a chat group with others who had also been defrauded, and called Pittsfield Police, who arrested him on Sept. 16. His bail had been revoked at the time due to an open case in Pittsfield District Court on which he was out on probation.
Senter, who is originally from North Carolina, was accused of stealing sheet metal in 2018 from TNT Carports and Metal on Industrial Drive.
In 2019 he was arraigned, also in Pittsfield, for being a fugitive from justice without a warrant after he was charged with grand larceny in Columbia County, N.Y. That charge was dismissed.
Senter’s company was dissolved by court order on June 30, 2021.
