A man has been charged with breaking into foreclosed homes around South Jersey and renting them.
Police have identified several more people who claim they were victims of a man who allegedly broke into foreclosed properties in South Jersey and illegally rented them to unsuspecting tenants.
Levar Michael Taylor was arrested in Monroe Township last week on various charges.
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Levar M. Taylor (Monroe Township Police Department) He allegedly entered two foreclosed properties in Monroe earlier this year, had utilities illegally turned back on and removed winterization stickers from the closed-up homes. He then posed as an agent to lease the properties, police say.
Police say he was living in one of the properties, in the 1700 block of Black Oak Road.
Taylor allegedly received more than $12,000 from people seeking to lease the homes for cash in Monroe Township, police said.
The transactions were conducted under Taylor's name and his company, Financial Adjustment Bureau Corp. Neither Taylor, who works as a handyman, nor FAB Corp. are licensed to conduct real estate transactions, police said.
Authorities believe he has pulled similar scams in Mount Holly, Pennsauken, Willingboro and Woodbury, among other towns.
Just this week, six more people in Camden and Pennsauken have come forward to report that they were scammed, Monroe Police Detective Derrick Jacobus said Monday afternoon.
One of Taylor's alleged victims is a nursing student and mother of four.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she met Taylor through a relative who was already renting from him in Deptford Township. Based on that recommendation, the woman gave Taylor $4,000 as a downpayment to purchase a home in Sicklerville. Taylor then told her that he was having trouble getting paperwork in order for that home and showed her other properties she could choose as a temporary residence until issues with the Sicklerville home were resolved.
She settled on a Williamstown property and moved in March. "I liked the neighborhood for my kids," she recalled.
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Police knocked on her door when they received reports of squatters in the home. She had a lease and shared it with them. What she didn't realize until that moment was that the lease she had signed indicated she was actually renting from the previous owners of the property, not Taylor.
"I never actually looked at the lease," she admitted, adding that she was in a rush to find a home for herself and her kids.
"I just couldn't believe it," she said after being told that she had been duped. "I was in shock. I'm a victim. He took all of my money. How am I supposed to get my money back?"
Embarrassed by what had happened, she explained the situation to her neighbors.
"When I first moved here, everybody welcomed me to the neighborhood," she recalled. She wanted them to know why police were at her front door.
In addition to the downpayment, she said she paid for repairs to the Sicklerville home and to have the water turned on at the Williamstown house. In all, she paid Taylor more than $5,000.
Her family has established a GoFundMe account to help fund a new place to live.
She knows she should have been more careful before signing the lease.
"It's my fault for not getting all of his information," she said. You really have to do your homework."
Taylor was charged with burglary, theft by deception, identity theft, forgery, criminal mischief and failure to register as a sex offender. He was jailed on $75,000 bail, but has since been released.
Police say no one else has been charged in the case yet, but the investigation is ongoing.
Taylor, whose official address is on Ferry Avenue in Camden, was charged with failure to register as a sex offender because he did not report to police that he had moved to Williamstown, Jacobus confirmed.
Efforts to learn more about the charges that led to him being registered as a sex offender were unsuccessful on Tuesday. Taylor is not listed on the state sex offender online database and Camden County officials could not locate information about him.
According to police and jail records, Taylor also uses the aliases Raymond Erving, Kevin Davis and Lavar Taylor.
A neighbor who lives near the Black Oak Road home where Taylor was arrested said many in the area are concerned about whether he will return to the neighborhood and not because of the alleged rental scam.
"I'm actually more concerned about the fact that he was a registered sex offender," the neighbor remarked.
The mother of four who rented from Taylor said she's waiting to see what happens next. She expects the family will be evicted by the legal owners of the property.
"I don't know the next step," she said. "I called the courthouse and they told me it's a unique situation and I just need to wait to see what the bank wants to do."
Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.