A Kissimmee city commissioner
and her boyfriend are arrested on fraud and theft charges after investigators say they moved into a home that had its utilities paid from the account of a dead woman.
Kissimmee City Commissioner Sara Shaw and her boyfriend were arrested on fraud and theft charges Tuesday after investigators said they moved into a home that continued to have its utilities automatically paid from the bank account of a dead woman who previously lived there.
After a yearlong investigation, Shaw, 36, was booked into the Osceola County Jail on charges of grand theft and fraudulent use of a deceased person’s personal identification.
Her boyfriend, Peter Sendtko, 42, faces the same charges and an additional charge of dealing in stolen property for allegedly selling the dead woman’s car to his mother for $500.
Kissimmee police began investigating in September 2015 after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement got an anonymous tip about the couple living in a house on Mill Slough Road that was owned by a woman who had died four years earlier. The utilities continued to be paid via automatic withdrawals from the woman’s bank account totaling more than $4,600, investigators say.
Sendtko paid $3,786 in past-due property taxes for the home, according to an FDLE report. Agents’ interviews with Shaw and Sendtko were entirely redacted in the report.
In 2014, Shaw was ticketed by the Florida Highway Patrol for driving 105 mph in a city truck. She said she was not driving more than 85 mph. She ran for Florida House District 43 in the Democratic primary in August but came in last in the three-person race.
Shaw’s City Commission term expires in November.