Ex-police officer’s attempt to steal homes slammed as ‘delusional’
A Victorian policewoman who used the police database to find vacant properties, before masquerading as the owner and advertising them for rent is facing time behind bars.
Police & Courts
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A Victorian policewoman busted for using her badge to steal strangers’ homes in what a judge has described as a “delusional” and “extraordinary” scam, wanted to get rich by building a property portfolio.
But in a massive fall from grace, Rosa Catherine Rossi, 57, was forced to resign from the force, now works on a farm and as a hairdresser — and is facing time behind bars.
The sly sergeant used the police database to find five vacant properties, before masquerading as the owner and hiring locksmiths to change the locks.
She then brazenly advertised some of the properties on Gumtree, showing would-be tenants through, and drawing up fraudulent leases.
Rossi, who was living in Corio at the time, targeted properties in Willaura, Brooklyn, Malvern and Chadstone between April 2016 and February 2017.
When the fraudster’s deception caught up with her, she was hauled before court in November 2018.
She initially claimed she would fight the charges, but 11 months later admitted her crimes.
Rossi pleaded guilty to five counts of obtaining property by deception, two counts of perjury and one count of unauthorised access to police information.
In a pre-sentence hearing in the County Court on Friday, Judge Martine Marich described Rossi as an “energetic fraudster”.
“It feels somewhat delusional,” the judge said of Rossi’s plan to use a legal loophole to take ownership of the properties.
She was trying to acquire the properties under “adverse possession”, which allows someone to obtain ownership if they can prove they’ve possessed it exclusively for at least 15 years.
So brazen was her offending, the charlatan cop even contacted Australia Post to have the owner’s mail redirected, allowing her to receive rates and other property-related mail to use as part of her elaborate fraud.
In January 2017, on finding a vacant Brooklyn home, in which the owner was in Macau for work, she attended the Hobsons Bay City Council in her police uniform and demanded details of the owners.
When the council worker said it would be later emailed to her, Rossi insisted it be written down on a piece of paper for her pronto.
Prosecutor Peter Pickering said Rossi acted ruthlessly, misused her position of authority and deserved to be jailed.
The pre-sentence hearing will continue on June 12. Judge Marich will then have the task of imposing punishment.
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— with AAP