Paul Girton, 37, plead guilty to home improvement fraud, a Class D felony, in a plea deal in Shelby Circuit Court. Judge Charles O’Connor gave him a stiffer sentence because he is a habitual offender.

He and another man, who was never identified in court records, were accused of going to an elderly woman’s house in Shelby County, near Mount Auburn, in September 2008 and telling her they were repairing cables and a “lightening rod” on the house’s roof.

Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies said in police reports the men didn’t actually do any repairs. The woman, who was a longtime companion of the homeowner — then in a nursing home — cut Girton two checks for a total of $12,000. They were the homeowner’s checks, who was in the habit of signing blank checks so the woman could pay household bills.

“She stated that she did not contact these men or ever request that they complete any work on her house,” according to the sheriff’s report. “At no point before the work began did they ever even speak of work needing to be done or about how much it would cost to fix any problems.”

The men simply arrived and told her they were working on the house.

While Girton talked idly with the woman, the other man was on the roof, pretending to do repairs. Then, Girton pressured the woman into paying. They did this twice in September, once for $3,100 and once for $9,000, court records said.

Girton was extradited from Illinois to Shelby County in February 2009, where he’d just been in a court case with similar charges, Shelby County Prosecutor Kent Apsley said. He has pending charges in Jasper, Madison, Marion, Starke and Porter counties on similar fraud cases and Apsley said he expects those charges to extend his sentence here.

“I would say he has previous arrests in Tennessee, Iowa, Illinois and Alabama, too,” Apsley said.