Woman sentenced for online rental scam in Parksville, police preach ‘buyer beware’

Court was told Ball received a $900 e-transfer from the woman for a damage deposit after Ball gave her an exterior tour of the property, claiming the tenants had changed the locks and they couldn’t go inside.

Ball then provided a written receipt.

“She did not own the property, she was a tenant in the property and said that she was going to refund their damage deposit and then at that point she deleted her Facebook accounts and was unreachable,” the Crown’s Amanda Vick told court.

The couple with young children were left without housing for a period of time, incurring additional expenses due to storage costs.

A complaint was filed to Oceanside RCMP, who confirmed Ball’s identity

Victim impact statements were provided to the court outlining how the deception impacted the family at a time when housing was extremely hard to find.

Ball’s lawyer, Kathleen Kerr-Donohue, said her client was going through a significant substance use relapse at the time, money was tight and Ball initially planned to rent out the home.

“She tells me that initially she did go in with the best of intentions, but in a moment of desperation after experiencing some significant abuse she did make an impulse decision to leave him and leave town,” Kerr-Donohue told court.

An original proposal from Crown and defence for Ball to pay $900 restitution was altered to a $100 victim surcharge after judge Ron Lamperson gauged the offender’s personal circumstances.

Court was told Ball, is sober, currently lives and works in northern B.C. and has no plans to return to Vancouver Island where she has negative influences.

Ball won’t have a criminal record if she abides by her probationary conditions for the next year.

Buyer beware
Nanaimo RCMP Res. Cst. Gary O’Brien said these types of scams have increased over the years as many people’s lives are interconnected with social media.

While many transactions are completed issue-free, O’Brien said Facebook Marketplace is a high volume platform filled with people often unknown to the buyer.

“You have to find out who they are if you can, look at their track record, determine how they want the payment and if it’s dubious as to where they’re going to meet you or they don’t want to meet you that in itself should be sending off red flags. Slow down before sending money to somebody you don’t know,” he said.

O’Brien said their detachment periodically gets inundated with complaints where buyers are left unsatisfied.

He said these can be challenging cases for police to probe, noting officers often have many other investigative priorities.

“You have to be prepared to come forward and testify in court, we have to have a trail of evidence and if it’s not there then unfortunately there’s not a lot we can do.”

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Ian.holmes@Pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes

by Ian Holmes

Woman sentenced for online rental scam in Parksville, police preach ‘buyer beware’

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