Emily Mathieu
A Toronto tenant who pleaded guilty to forging documents and writing bad cheques to landlords was methodical and deliberate in his long efforts to deceive and victimize his landlords and stay in properties without paying rent.
Those were the words assistant crown attorney Timothy DiMuzio used to describe the actions of Adam Buttigieg during his sentencing hearing at Ontario Superior Court.
“Buttigieg was methodical in what he did. There were clear elements of planning and deliberation and there were actual victims, not just banks — they are victims as well — but individuals,” said DiMuzio, standing before a judge at Old City Hall.
On Monday, Buttigieg pleaded guilty to 10 of a total of 66 charges against him and was handed a 12-month conditional sentence and 12 months probation. The other charges were withdrawn.
His crimes included writing 15 cheques to two landlords from accounts he knew were frozen, cancelled or didn’t have enough funds, altering several Equifax credit reports, writing cheques he knew would bounce to a bank to obtain money orders and forging cheques using the equipment and logo of his former employer.
At the hearing, Buttigieg stood and told Justice Shaun Nakatsuru he never really wanted to run from his mistakes and is working to understand why what he has identified as struggles with self esteem have led to his criminal behaviour.
“It has all caught up with me now. I see that,” he said.
Buttigieg’s long history of fraud convictions and dodging rent payments is part of a Star series on how some tenants exploit protections offered through the landlord and tenant board to stay in properties rent free. Privacy rules also mean the records of tenants and landlords are sealed.
Adam Buttigieg has been evicted from multiple rental properties for writing bad cheques. Privacy rules mean prospective landlords have no way to look up his history before he signs a lease.
In June, Buttigieg spoke with the Star and during a long interview admitted he had appeared before the board five times since 2008, each time for writing bad cheques, and explained how he repeatedly used loopholes he identified in the board process to delay eviction. His file, he admitted, should come with a “big red flag.”
He also left a string of former girlfriends in financial ruin, including Crystal Murphy, who after renting with Buttigieg and being tied to him by a lease wants the records of tenants like him to be made public.
His sentence was worked out between DiMuzio and Buttigieg’s defence lawyer Steven Safieh, who spoke about his client’s desire and potential to rehabilitate.
“There is no quick answer. It is complicated, more complicated than any of us in this courtroom can gather,” said Safieh.
Both Safieh and prosecutor DiMuzio mentioned Buttigieg’s co-operation with the police following his 2011 arrest and his early pledge to DiMuzio that he intended to plead guilty.
When he was renting, DiMuzio said, Buttigieg would come “armed with an altered credit report in his favour and cheques which he knew were associated with accounts that were either frozen, or cancelled or had insufficient funds to cover them.”
DiMuzio also noted that Buttigieg used the name Galea and Buttigieg-Galea to deceive creditors. He also wrote cheques to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, despite knowing he didn’t have enough cash in his account, to obtain money orders, said DiMuzio.
The fake cheques, explained DiMuzio, were created using a camera kit, laptop and cheque template taken from Cosmoda Corporation, where Buttigieg worked as a manager in the design department.
The remaining 56 charges were withdrawn, including allegations Buttigieg defrauded two other major banks and the landlord and tenant board.
He will be under house arrest for the first six months of his sentence, then have a curfew for the remaining six months. He must also pay back $5,503 to one landlord, perform 100 hours of community service, have no contact with his former landlords, receive counseling and not be found with any financial documents not in his name.
Buttigieg told the Star he’s been seeing a psychologist for a year.
He can leave his home to take his young daughter to school, work at a job his lawyer said he was recently offered and to go to court.
Buttigieg is facing 81 new charges, for a string of alleged crimes against his former fiancé that took place between September 2012 and November 2013. Those charges were laid in May and he is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 6 at 1000 Finch Ave. W.
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