HH Custom Painting

In late September 2019, I hired Joe H, the owner of HH Custom Painting to do some painting work. I wrote him two checks to cover supplies for almost $1,000. He promised to have the work done prior to a party we were hosting, but did zero work. He hasn't answered my phone calls, texts or emails.
He gave us references which we checked before we paid him anything (they must have been friends or family as they all checked out). I subsequently found a Yelp review on his business stating that he did the same thing to someone named *** plus a Google review dating back to April 2019 with a similar claim (takes the money, doesn't do the work).