Roofer accused of over $250,000 in fraudulent theft of materials

An arrest warrant was issued for a Cache man accused of fraudulently obtaining over $250,000 worth of materials using the charge account for a roofing company.

The Comanche County District Court issued the felony arrest warrant Thursday for Dennis Ryan Carstensen, 38, for a count of obtaining property by false pretenses, records indicate. The crime is punishable by up to eight years in prison and/or a fine up to $5,000 plus restitution.

Lawton police began investigating Carstensen on May 29 after Comanche Home Center reported that the charge account opened Jan. 5, 2023, under the name of Ryan’s Roofing LLC had charged materials to the account for his jobs totaling $258,791.60, the warrant affidavit states. The store manager told police he attempted to set up meetings with Carstensen but had not had a response.

Detective Christopher Adamson spoke with Carstensen by phone on May 30. Carstensen told the detective he’d been paying on the bill up until two weeks prior, the affidavit states. However, the next day, the owner of Comanche Home Center said he wanted to press charges.

On Sept. 19, a statement from the store’s attorney showed Carstensen had made payments on some jobs but not all of them and there had been long periods of time between payments on materials, according to the affidavit. Seven liens had been placed on property for non-payment, Adamson stated.

With the most recent payment received for the materials on June 24, Carstensen’s total debt is $237,118.18, the affidavit states.