Fraudster sent back to prison
Third-time offender sentenced for crimes targeting the elderly, stealing valuables from homes
Ajudge is sending a serial fraudster who was preying on the elderly back to the penitentiary after he pleaded guilty to a “despicable” and “sophisticated” household roofing scam last summer in Toronto.
“There was nothing random in the targeting of these elderly people. It was designed ... (to take) full advantage of vulnerable people,” Ontario Court Justice William Wolski wrote in his reasons for the sentence released this week.
The 10 victims, nine of them women, ranged in age from 80 to 93, and were living on quiet residential streets located in East York, near St. Clair and Victoria Park Aves., and in the southwest part of Scarborough, south of Eglinton Ave. One victim was legally blind. At least four of the victims were living alone.
One victim had dementia.
Another victim’s husband had died just four days earlier.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Kevin Sampson, 42, would knock on doors and advise residents there was aproblem with their roof vents, or chimney, or some other repair work that needed immediate attention to avoid water damage or wild animals from gaining access to the attic.
“The repairs to these fictitious vents, and chimneys, and roofs were never done,” the judge wrote.
His accomplice, Aimee Cipolla, 35, would ask to use the washroom and, once inside the home, grab debit and credit cards, identification documents and any other cash or valuables that she could get her hands on.
The pair then immediately made purchases with the credit cards or withdrew money using the debit cards, after using a device to extract the PINs.
They managed to take $18,649.42 from the Bank of Nova Scotia accounts and credit card belonging to a 90-year-old man suffering from age-related memory loss.
The bank recognized the fraudulent nature of these transactions and reimbursed the full amount, the judge wrote. Altogether, the victims lost $21,481. Using a female accomplice “added an extra touch of artifice to gain the trust of these elderly people,” whom the judge called “valued citizens ... deserving of protection from such hustlers and fraudsters.”
Wolski noted this is the third time Sampson, who is from Nova Scotia, has been sentenced for schemes to defraud elderly citizens.
Sampson pleaded guilty to 23 counts of fraud, theft, break and enter, criminal harassment, unlawfully in dwelling, and breach of probation. His record stretches all the way back to 1991.
Wolski sentenced Sampson to four years in prison, minus 14 months for time served.
Last February, Cipolla pleaded guilty to 21 offences and then received a 15-month jail sentence. As part of her plea, she testified under oath and admitted that she and Sampson committed the crimes.
In 2016, Sampson pleaded guilty to defrauding a 91-yearold Toronto woman.
The citizen, who had mild dementia, had almost $8,000 stolen from her after Sampson promised to repair a leaky roof, which wasn’t actually leaking and didn’t need any fixing.