A roofer in the state of Washington is looking at felony charges after it was determined he was operating without workers’ compensation insurance and doing unregistered contracting work.

Peter Yeaman does roofing contracting as Southgate Roofing in Mason County, WA. If convicted he could go to jail for five years and pay $10,000 in fines for doing business without coverage. Annette Taylor is the deputy assistant director of the state’s Department of Labor and Industries Fraud Prevention and Labor Standards. She said that working without workers’ compensation coverage is not only illegal, but unfair to other roofers who do pay their premiums but then get outbid by those that don’t and so can afford to lower their prices.

The state’s Department of Labor and Industries revoked his contractor registration in 2012 because he was not paying workers’ compensation premiums, and then they later revoked his workers’ comp coverage. The department found out that he was still doing jobs and employing workers. After his registration and coverage were revoked his company continued to buy materials and dispose of materials, meaning they were probably working on job sites. Yeaman also has been previously cited for unregistered contracting and various safety violations. He is on a list of roofers who are “ineligible to bid or work on public works projects”.

For his previous infractions he owes the department $28,000 in fines and $131,000 in unpaid workers’ compensation premiums.

Roofers face high premium rates, but that’s because the work they do is so dangerous. If one of his workers was hurt on a job (they weren’t allowed to be working in the first place) they would not have the security of workers’ compensation to pay the bills. If the allegations against Yeaman are true it means he put his workers in danger and disregarded their safety.