By Billy Davis

A construction worker who is facing up to five years in prison for home repair fraud has been allowed more time to repay the $17,700 he swindled from an elderly Sardis couple.

Brandy Caine, 33, walked out of circuit court Friday with an order to pay back the stolen money by May 21.

He had paid back $1,600 when he stood before Judge Andrew C. Baker that morning, said Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale.

Home repair fraud that totals at least $10,000 triggers a felony in Mississippi and carries up to five years in prison.

Hale said Caine has pleaded guilty to failing to install a metal roof and paint the home of Ron Yancey, 87, and wife Zelia Yancey, 82. The couple lives at 114 Sycamore.

Caine and a brother, Brian Caine, promised in a written contract to improve the home, according to court records.

“They sweet-talked my dad. That money was all he had and wiped out his life’s savings,” said Toni Porter, the couple’s daughter.

Porter, of Tupelo, accompanied her elderly parents to Caine’s court hearing Friday in Batesville.

Porter said her father had forked over money for building materials three times when she learned of the promised home repairs.  By then no work had ever started despite promises to start, she said.

The family has not sought restitution in civil court, according to the daughter.

The Yanceys, armed with the contract, met with a Panola sheriff’s investigator on December 9, 2008, six months after construction work was supposed to begin.

Brandy Caine admitted the fraud to investigator Mark Whitten and was told to pay back the money by February 5, 2009, according to court records.

“The family is mad enough to see him go to prison,” Hale told the court Friday. “But they need the money.”

Baker, after granting Caine more time, told him there is “one step left – to put you inside a penitentiary.”

Caine’s attorney, Joe Morgan Wilson, told Baker that his client works outside as a construction worker and will begin paying back the money once the weather improves.

Court records show Caine had hired Batesville attorney Dennis Baker, who withdrew from the case because his client did not pay attorney’s fees or restitution to the Yanceys.