James Robert Gallagher, 54, of Hazleton, appeared before Judge Joseph Matika in Carbon County Court Tuesday and pleaded guilty to three counts of theft by deception and one of bad checks.

He admitted to fleecing three people out of thousands of dollars by taking money to do work for them and never doing the work.Gallagher was charged by Kidder Township police for incidents that occurred in January, March and June of 2012. He took money from his victims to do work at their homes, such as promising to install new windows in one home, taking money and promising to deliver a new washer and dryer in another incident, and replacing a patio door in a third incident.In all he took a total of $10,933.16 from three victims, all from the Big Boulder area.Matika said putting Gallagher in jail would not get the victims' their money back. He said getting the victims their money back was the court's chief objective.He placed Gallagher on probation for a total of four years and ordered him to make restitution in the amount stated, to render a total of 200 hours of community service, and supply a DNA sample.He also told Gallagher, who said he only has a part-time job now, he must get a full-time job within 60 days or he would be in violation of his probation sentence.