An Upstate New York contractor was sentenced to two years in prison for taking payments from three homeowners and failing to perform any work, Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane announced last week.
Wayne A. Michalak, 53, of Lockport, pleaded guilty in November 2025 to three counts of grand larceny in the third degree, which are class D felonies.
Michalak, who operated WNY Backyard Enclosures, collected a total of nearly $40,000 from victims between April and June 2022. On April 26, 2022, he accepted $28,889.38 from a homeowner in the Town of Marilla who hired him to build a detached garage. The following month, on May 16, 2022, he took $5,000 from a homeowner in the Village of Blasdell for a concrete patio with a pergola. On June 4, 2022, he collected $5,985 from a homeowner in the Town of Tonawanda who hired him to install a concrete patio…