Staff Reporter
More than 22 years after a fake landlord disappeared with nearly $19,000 in rental deposits, Toronto police have charged a man who they say was living right under their noses the whole time under an assumed identity.
In April 1987, a man using the alias "Don Johnson" - apparently after the star of the then-popular TV show Miami Vice -disappeared after collecting rent deposits from 12 different families for a North York duplex he didn't own.
The scam was discovered when more than one family attempted to move into the home.
"We saved for a year to get that (money)," victim Jackie Clarke told the Star at the time. "It may not seem like much to him, but it is to us."
Police searched for weeks for the short, fat and balding man and a woman he had identified as his wife, but quickly realized they were getting nowhere.
The warrant for the man's arrest was never closed, however, and cold case officers from 33 Division picked up the file earlier this year.
"It was a warrant that we kept on file because of the severity of it, because it affected many people in the community," said Acting Det. Sgt. Keith Moxley. "The difficulty here is putting together a case that's 22 years old."
Details were not immediately available as to how investigators made a connection between the 1987 fraud and the man arrested on Wednesday, but Moxley said the officers were confident enough to press charges.
"We're working with old information, but it's certainly a very straightforward case," he said. "It was good work on the part of the officer who made the connection."
William Wilson, also know as William Bear, of North York, has been charged with 10 counts of fraud. He was released on $2,000 cash bail yesterday.
He will be back in court on Sept. 18
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