A 45-year-old man, posing as a real estate agent, signed an unsuspecting tenant to a lease for $2,200 in rent per month for a boarded-up, Baldwin, Long Island home he didn't even own.Eventually, the tenant stopped paying the "rent" after Ozell Neely didn't follow through on some of the repairs he had promised her. Mr. Neely initiated eviction proceedings, at which point the true owner showed up.
Neely, who allegedly pocketed more than $10,000, faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
"His crime does not rank up there with the most sophisticated," Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice told the New York Daily News. "But for a brief period in time, it worked and he profited."
Mr. Ozell allegedly got more than $10,000 from the tenant before being caught. He has been charged with burglary and grand larceny, and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
