Man gets 2 years in prison for unlicensed plumbing work

A northwest suburban man was sentenced to two years in prison for violating a court order that prohibited him from performing plumbing work in Illinois.

Joel Ullmer, 48, pleaded guilty in DuPage County Circuit Court to indirect criminal contempt for collecting more than $23,000 from consumers for unlicensed plumbing work, according to a statement from Illinois attorney general’s office.

A DuPage County judge in 2003 barred Ullmer from working as a plumber without first obtaining a state-required license, the attorney general’s office said. Since the judge’s order, Ullmer entered into contracts with seven customers and accepted $23,404 in payments despite still being unlicensed.

After he took the payments, Ullmer either didn’t perform any work or began projects but left them mostly unfinished, prosecutors said. He also didn’t inform the customers about their right to cancel a contract within three days and did not return down payments despite failing to complete the work.

In 2008, Ullmer, of Norridge, was found to be in violation of the court ruling and ordered to pay restitution, prosecutors said. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to two years in prison.