Florence police arrest alleged scam artist

FLORENCE — A North Myrtle Beach man was arrested Wednesday amid allegations he scammed several Florence residents and a local businessman out of money.

Tommy Clack, 38, of 1008 Ridgewood Drive, was served with four warrants for breach/obtaining signature or property under false pretenses ($5,000 or more) about 11 a.m. soon after he surrendered at the Florence Police Department. He was accompanied by his attorney, Florence Police Maj. Carlos Raines said.

The warrants were issued after several Florence residents alerted police to some suspicious business dealings involving the suspect.

According to the first complainant, a local doctor, the suspect approached him Sept. 1 at his Coit Street office about paving an area of the parking lot. The suspect said he owned a paving business called Florence County Asphalt and told the doctor he would pave the area in question for $4,000. The doctor told police he issued the suspect a check for the work but was surprised when he returned to his office to find the entire parking area had been paved, Raines said.

“At that point, the doctor says Clack demanded $50,000 for the job. After some talking, the doctor agreed to pay him $30,000,” Raines said. “He said Clack quoted the area as 30,000 square feet, but it turns out it was about a third of that in size.”

The doctor also claims the work was shoddy and cracked and marked by tires within days.

Within a month, three other local residents reported similar incidents involving Clack, Raines said. In those cases, the complainants said the suspect came to their homes to solicit business and was hired to pave their driveways. In each case, the complainants said he claimed to own the company responsible for recent paving work on Cherokee Road and Palmetto Street, which isn’t true. All complainants also said they paid the suspect between $19,000 and $26,000 for paving work. And each case, they say the paving job was subpar, Raines said.

In addition to the warrants, Clack was served with a cease and desist order by the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

“He’s not licensed to be doing what he’s doing, and you have to be properly licensed to do the work he was doing,” Raines said. “From these complaints, it seems like he was doing whatever he could and saying whatever he could to get these people to hire him.”

In July, the Better Business Bureau in Conway began warning customers in Horry County about Clack, who has been in trouble in the past for similar schemes in North Carolina.

In North Carolina, the attorney general targeted Clack for failing to notify customers of their right to cancel the contracts within a three-day period. Clark eventually pleaded guilty and agreed to begin notifying customers of their rights. According to media reports, Clack also paid back at least one customer.

Clack was booked at the Florence County Detention Center in Effingham about noon and released on a $4,000 personal recognizance bond about 20 minutes later.

Raines said he urges anyone who has fallen victim to a similar scam to notify local law enforcement. Anyone with information about Clack or scams within the city of Florence is asked to call the police department at (843) 665-3191.