An  apartment  rental  thug

It is a sad fact of life that there is low-life who will move into rental apartments with no intention whatsoever of ever paying any rent. The name of one of these scumbags is Adam Buttigieg. There are many people world-wide with that name so I will be more specific about the one I am writing about. This man is more bald than not and is a graphic designer who also uses the last name, Galea and for the most part, he lives in Toronto, Canada.                                                                                                                                                
This man was originally facing 147 criminal charges involving theft, forgery and fraud. Some of those charges also involved him writing cheques to landlords for his rent when his bank accounts were already frozen or didn’t have enough funds. On July 28, 2014, Buttigieg pleaded guilty to 10 of a total of 66 charges against him and was handed a 12-month conditional sentence and 12 months’ probation. The other charges were withdrawn.

He will be under house arrest for the first six months of his sentence, then after that, he will be under a curfew for the remaining six months. He must also pay back $5,503 to one landlord, perform 100 hours of community service, have no contact with his former landlords, receive counseling and not be found with any financial documents not in his name.

In June, Buttigieg spoke with the Toronto Star and during a long interview; he admitted he had appeared before the Landlord and Tenant Board five times since 2008—each time for writing bad cheques. He also explained how he repeatedly used legal loopholes to delay his evictions.

                   

He also left a string of former girlfriends in financial ruin, including Crystal Murphy, who after renting an apartment with Buttigieg and being tied to him by a lease, he dumped her and left her to pay off the balance of the lease.  Her relationship with this scumbag has cost her $10,000.

Buttigieg met his last three girlfriends—including Murphy through online dating. In his profiles, he advertises as someone looking for a best friend. The girlfriends who spoke with the Star describe how, at first, Buttigieg came across as kind and eager for a committed relationship. They say he was always well dressed and spoke of a well-off lifestyle, chatting about living in high-end condominiums, properties he sometimes claimed that he owned. Typically, within a year of meeting them, Buttigieg convinced the women to move in with him.

Buttigieg moved into the $1.1 million two-story property in the Sunnylea neighborhood with his then and now separated wife and infant daughter in early 2009 and right away the first $3,500 rent cheque bounced. When the landlord pushed for the rent, Buttigieg wrote more bad cheques and made partial payments in cash.

He paid what he owed for four months, but the following month when no rent came, the landlord took him to the Landlord and Tenant Board and he was ordered out. He asked for and was granted another hearing because he wrote a cheque for $10,170, to be held in trust pending the outcome. When that cheque bounced, he wrote a second cheque for $17,670 and asked for and received another hearing. That cheque bounced as well.

When asked why he did this, he said, “It was an effort to stall the system if I could, so I could come up with a plan….so I could get back on my feet. I just needed a little more time.” His next request to defend his case was denied. At last, the adjudicator woke up.

When the Sherriff showed up at the Sunnylea home, Buttigieg showed him paperwork he claimed proved he had a new hearing. That document was later found to be a fake, according to the ministry. In January 2011, he pleaded guilty to two counts of providing “false or misleading information” in violation of the Residential Tenancies Act and was fined $4,300, plus court fees.

After he was evicted from the house, Buttigieg moved on to a penthouse unit in a towering building known as The Tides, in Etobicoke (a district in Toronto). 

That tenancy started in early 2010. The landlady said that by the third month the rent had stopped coming. Buttigieg emailed her images of his online bank account to prove he had cash, made promise after promise but his rent payment never arrived. She is out $8,000 in landlord tribunal fees and rent.

Buttigieg later admitted to that particular landlady that he had lost his job at a retail design company in Toronto. He said that the company was served with four separate garnishment notices, according to documents filed in small claims court. The people he owed money to included the landlord from the Etobicoke penthouse, a man he borrowed $20,000 from and two companies that make private loans. By law, the employer can only deduct a total of 20% from his wages.

By this time, Buttigieg was dating Meghan, 36, who had a young daughter. Buttigieg met Meghan online in late 2009. He told her that he owned the condo at The Tides and a nearby loft, the latter property they lived in together for a few months. 

Buttigieg borrowed thousands of dollars from Meghan. He claimed it was for lawyers and closing fees for the loft. It is a sad commentary that scumbags like this man woo women for their money only. 

Meghan said they were planning their future, even looking at buying a house in Vaughan, but Buttigieg wouldn’t answer questions about the sale of the loft.

She finally contacted the real estate agent handling the property and he told her that Buttigieg was only a tenant and was behind on the rent. She immediately withdrew all her money from their joint account, picked up her daughter up at daycare and went to stay with a friend. Unfortunately, she didn’t check out the property beforehand. 

Buttigieg was furious.  He went her at work and displayed a highly pixelated document he said proved that he had the ownership of the loft. She didn’t buy that explanation so she called the police, and had them meet her at the loft so she could pick up her things. She estimates she lost $25,000.

He later pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud under $5,000 in relation to the loans and was sentenced to two years’ probation. He should have got two years incarceration. If he received that, others would have suffered.

Buttigieg says he realizes he has not always been honest with women, but said he was never abusive and insisted he always intended to pay rent but was troubled by a run of bad luck. Yeah, sure and pigs fly.

Buttigieg is facing 81 new charges, for a string of alleged crimes against his former fiancé that took place between September 2012 and November 2013. Those charges were laid in May and he is scheduled to appear in court on August 6, 2014.  

In June, he was charged with violating his previous probation for failing to pay back $9,900 to a different former girlfriend, who he was convicted of defrauding in 2012. He is required to appear on those charges on August 20, 2014. 

There is only one way to stop scumbags like this man from ripping off people and that is to incarcerate them.

I will UPDATE this article when I learn what his sentences for these new charges will be.