Rolla man sentenced for scamming the elderly

A Rolla man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday for scamming the elderly.

39-year-old Joseph Perou pleaded guilty to two counts of financial exploitation of the elderly on June 4.

Perou had 12 prior felony convictions.

Perou exploited several elderly people starting in October 2014. He promised to complete construction work, but never finished the work and ran off with their payments.

He continued scamming new victims in an attempt to pay back previous victims, and was able to collect more than $50,000 before he was caught.