Rom- con ar tist gets 6 year s for bilking woman’s savings

A remorseless and incorrigible con artist who bilked a woman of her life- savings was handed a six- year sentence Wednesday and ordered to repay the $ 595,000 he stole. In jailing Shaun Rootenberg for fraud, the judge described him as cold and calculating in his dishonesty for abusing Victoria Smith’s romantic feelings toward him. His lawyer said they will appeal. The pair had met on a dating site in July 2013, shortly after Rootenberg, 52, of Thornhill, Ont. was released from prison for previous frauds. Smith believed she had developed a “close” relationship with a financier who called himself Shaun Rothberg. He used her money to buy a new BMW and pay off debts. “My life story has been written by a villain,” Smith had previously told court.