A Butler County contractor, who previously had been sentenced to pay $20,000 in restitution and serve six years of probation for deceptive business practices in Allegheny County, was sentenced Thursday in a home improvement fraud case in Butler County.

Austin J. Reges, 30, of Butler, was sentenced to serve 30 days to 12 months in county prison, but he immediately was paroled to serve 24 months of probation and pay $3,881 in restitution to an insurance company after pleading guilty to a theft by deception charge filed by the Attorney General’s office.

He initially was charged with fraud and two counts of theft by deception for failing to reimburse a Penn Township customer after damaging the electric service at their home in October 2022.

Deputy Attorney General Daniel Gleixner said Reges has previous convictions and, in this case, accepted money from a customer in a scam. He asked for a jail sentence to deter him from committing similar crimes.

Assistant public defender Joseph Smith said Reges is working and making payments toward his restitution in Allegheny County and asked for a sentence of 12 months of probation.

“Prison would serve as a wake-up call,” said Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCune.

However, Reges has to be able to work to pay restitution, McCune said before imposing the sentence, which runs concurrently with his Allegheny County sentence.

“If you violate parole, you will got to jail,” McCune stressed.

In December 2023, Reges was sentenced in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court to serve a total of six years probation and pay $20,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to theft by deception and deceptive business practices charges filed by West Deer Township police following a June 2022 incident.