84 Year Old Widow Loses Home In Foreclosure In Alleged Home Improvement/Serial Refinancing Scam; Three To Stand Trial

In Bradenton, Florida, the Bradenton Herald reports:

• Bob and Ruth Dane knew something was wrong. In the fall of 2001, they watched construction workers habitually pop in and out of their neighbor Shirlee Sassani's home [...]. The 84-year-old woman got a new roof, which she needed. But the additions, repairs and renovations that followed over the next five years were unnecessary, according to Manatee County sheriff's detectives who last year arrested four men they say scammed Sassani. Three of them are set to stand trial this fall. Repeatedly, the suspects told Sassani she needed [additional] work done to her home.

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• Prosecutors say none of the [additional] work was needed, and that the scheme eventually cost Sassani her home. During the unnecessary construction, authorities say, Arbor Construction and Class A Construction workers helped facilitate nine separate refinances on Sassani's home. By December 2006, her mortgage was $303,000, and her lenders foreclosed on the home because she couldn't afford the payments. She has moved to New Jersey to live near relatives.

For more, see Three to stand trial in fraud case.

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