Todd Buzza: Serial scammer ‘Todd the Shod’ back in court
He’s been on A Current Affair, bankrupted and fined $300k for not paying workers, but this Mt Wav repeat rorter is still committing cons.
South East
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A swindler with a horror history of ripping people off has narrowly escaped a jail term for his latest scam.
Todd Buzza has a rort rap sheet as long as his arm yet continues to try and get away with conning cash out of innocent victims.
This time the 48-year-old Mt Waverley father-of-three swindled $9200 from two unsuspecting property owners he diddled through a building scam.
Buzza pleaded guilty to a series of deception-related charges at the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
The court heard Buzza’s scheme was elaborate, including setting up a dodgy building company which secured work through an online tradie site.
He changed one letter in his surname so people who Googled him didn’t uncover that he was a well-known scammer and he listed a home address that looked legit, but in fact was an empty property.
He also had a fake Instagram page with “work” he had done, and he created a pretend building certificate to try and prove he had liability insurance.
In August last year a Burwood East homeowner logged onto a service site to ask tradies for quotes for some work.
She received one from Buzza, who had signed up a dodgy building business, and he gave her a price for a deck, fence and pergola.
He showed her Instagram pictures of “his” work and she paid a $4200 deposit, ostensibly for materials.
He did turn up to start the work but left within 30 minutes, coming back a day later and doing another two hours before leaving again.
He never re-attended, she found out his real name and “her heart sank” when she realised she had been duped by the notorious swindler.
In October he performed a similar scam on someone who wanted work done on their Burwood East rental.
He provided the property owner with fake insurance documents who transferred $5000 as a deposit for his services.
Some work was done, but it was so shoddy professionals had to be brought into rectify his substandard efforts.
In the past Buzza has been bailed up by A Current Affair over his construction cons and he’s been the subject of a Consumer Affairs Victoria warning alert.
And he and his company were fined more than $300,000 over a burger bar wage theft scam.
He is also well-known online, with a Facebook page dedicated to his crimes named ‘Todd the Shod’.
Defence lawyer Chen Yang said Buzza did do some work and did pay for some materials, he “didn’t just take the money and run” and these crimes were at the lower end of the scale.
He said his client had suffered penalties in the past, had been bankrupted, lost his home and was now living in a rental property due to coverage of his previous crimes.
The police prosecution called for an immediate jail term, saying he had a long history of deception-based offences involving money and the community needed to be protected from “people like him”.
Magistrate Suzette Dootjes said Buzza’s crimes caused significant impacts on his victims.
She said should he commit further similar offences the “next penalty will be imprisonment”.
“The community places a lot of trust in tradespeople to be honest, qualified and competent,” Ms Dootjes said.
“You completely breached that trust.”
Buzza was convicted and placed on a 12-month community corrections order with 150 hours of unpaid work.
He was also ordered to repay $9200 to the victims.
