Rental Listing Cheater Must Serve Year in Jail

A Sylmar man was ordered to serve a year in jail for failing to pay restitution on time to victims of a prepaid rental listing swindle in which customers paid for primarily fake rental listings, the city attorney said.

In August, Michael Rodriguez, 30, pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft, failure to grant funds as required by law, false advertising and unlawfully operating a prepaid rental listing service at an unapproved location.

He was sentenced to 150 days in jail at that time and ordered to pay back his victims by Sept. 30, a deadline that was extended later to Nov. 26.

Rodriguez failed to meet that final deadline.

At a court appearance Monday, Rodriguez turned over 48 restitution checks totaling $7,100, but he still owes 12 other victims a total of $1,660, said Deputy City Atty. Mark Lambert.

Rodriguez charged his victims $150 for prepaid rental listings containing addresses that often were nonexistent or unavailable for rent, according to Lambert.

Rodriguez operated the scheme out of locations in North Hollywood, Van Nuys and Pasadena under several business names, including Property’s Plus, Century Group, Century Bureau and Remax Bureau, Lambert said.

The charges grew out of complaints by consumers who said they were unable to get their money back after complaining to Rodriguez that the properties he provided were either nonexistent, not for rent, or unavailable at the price listed in Rodriguez’s advertising.

The victims said they contacted Rodriguez through an advertisement he placed in the Recycler newspaper, Lambert said.