SAN DIEGO -- The 10News I-Team confronts Janice Culp outside her business on Sports Arena Boulevard.

"Hi, Janice Culp, I'm Lauren Reynolds from Channel 10 News, I need to talk to you about running Sunco. Are you afraid to talk to us?"

Culp ignores our questions and ducks back into Sunco Construction, the company employees say she runs along with her husband Keith Marbury and brother Dale Culp.

She has good reason to avoid our camera, just as she did when the Investigative Unit exposed shady dealings on her part five years ago.

"All they had to do is the work," says former Sunco employee Art Donahue. "Do the work, pay the people."

But Sunco didn't do that. The company is a general contractor with slick marketing which promises quality craftsmanship at an affordable price.

Customers say if the work was even completed it was anything but good quality.

"At every chance they could, they took advantage of everyone they could," says Sherry Rydzinski.

She is 63 years old. She hired Sunco for a remodel and room addition.

"My father had passed away in February. My husband passed away in March. They had left me a little bit of money and I wanted to increase the size of the house because my daughters and their children were moving in."

Sunco wasted no time getting that insurance money out of Rydzinski, a retired school cafeteria worker on a fixed income.

Sunco demanded 40 percent down to start, a violation of California state law that caps home improvement down payments at 10 percent or $1,000, whichever is less. Then Sunco kept going back to Rydzinski for more money.

"Seemed like every time I turned around, it was another 10, 20 thousand dollars," she says.

Eventually, Rydzinski says she gave Sunco $250,000. They did only a third of the work they promised.

Some of the work was shoddy.

"This slab was poured, but it was poured incorrectly so it had to be completely taken out and repoured," she says, pointing at her room addition.

She had to pay someone else to fix the problems. Even the materials for which she paid Sunco $57,000 never showed up. The I-Team has learned of five other customers with similar complaints of poor quality work, materials that never arrive, excessive and illegal down payments.

"What did they do with all of that money you gave them?" asks reporter Lauren Reynolds.

"I wish I knew," she says.

Former employee Art Donahue may know where the money has been going.

"All of a sudden we saw the new BMW, they told us about the beach house they got. Janice was taking trips back and forth to Oregon, buying more purses, coming in with more bling."

He worked for Sunco for eight months.

"As far as I knew Janice was the owner."

Lori Drake worked for Janice Culp as Sunco's sales manager.

"She introduced herself to me as the owner," says Drake.

However, Janice Culp's name is not found on any of Sunco's licenses or paperwork. Culp uses her husband's and brother's names for that. That's because Culp is on probation.

After a 10News expose of her actions five years ago, Culp was charged with 22 felonies. She pled no contest to theft from an elderly person and diversion of construction funds. She was ordered to pay $224,000 in restitution.

Drake says, "She should go back to jail; she shouldn't be allowed to work in the construction industry."

When Art Donahue learns of Culp's criminal history he confronts her.

"Just dropped the bomb on her, I know you're a convicted criminal, I know you're on parole. She says, 'Whoop dee doo, he knows I'm here.'"

Culp claims that her probation officer knows what she's doing -- stating she's only an employee of Sunco. She knows she's barred from running a construction company.

Phillip Treas of the California Contractors State License Board can't comment on the Culp case, but says for someone in Culp's position, "having any ownership or any management, supervision power would be illegal."

The 10News I-Team finds Culp's resume posted on craigslist for Orange County. She writes, "I currently own and operate a successful showroom, construction business." She lists her position at Sunco as General Manager and C.O.O.

It's not just that Culp is violating a court order. Customers and former employees say she and her associates are back doing the lying and cheating that got Culp in trouble with the law in the first place.

"I guess her past history, they can't stay away from that," Donahue points out.

Customer Sherry Rydzinski had to take out a loan to clean up the Sunco mess and finish her construction project. It's put her back financially 20 years.

"I would really like to see them completely out of business so nobody else is ever taken advantage of."

The I-Team contacted Culp's original prosecutor, Paul Greenwood in the District Attorney's Office.

This was his response:

"I am very grateful to Channel 10 for uncovering this information. I intend to discuss these developments with Culp's probation officer and determine if additional charges or at least a violation of probation should be alleged."

The I-Team blog has information for consumers about the laws contractors are required to follow when hired for home improvement jobs.