Con Man Tricks Cops Into Evicting Bed-Stuy Tenants, DA Says

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A con man collected rent from two Bed-Stuy residents for a building he didn't own, then tricked cops into evicting the pair when they cottoned onto the scam and stopped paying him, prosecutors said.

Raymond Lewis, 54, was hauled into Brooklyn Criminal Court Monday for allegedly conning the New York Police Department and two fellow tenants at 791 Lexington Ave., the Brooklyn District Attorney's office announced.

Lewis' scam began on Feb. 23 when he marched into Housing Court and filed suit against two neighbors in the three-family home on Lexington Avenue, prosecutors said.

In his petition, Lewis claimed he was the prime tenant and the two others were under-tenants who had stopped paying the rent they owed him, prosecutors said.

The two tenants did stop paying him rent, but only because they found out he was not the landlord and their building needed repairs, said prosecutors.

Then, about two weeks later on Saturday, March 10, Lewis called 911 and claimed two tenants who had been evicted were now trespassing on his property, according to prosecutors.

Police arrived at the house to find Lewis waiting for them, said prosecutors.

Lewis provided the officers with two forged eviction notives, which they enforced despite being unable to reach the Marshal's office and confirm the documents' authenticity, prosecutors said.

The newly-homeless tenants reported the eviction days later to the Marshal's office, where investigators later realized Lewis had shown the cops doctored eviction notices from a building down the block, said prosecutors.

Lewis was arrested was charged Monday with criminal possession of a forged instrument, falsely reporting an incident and unlawful eviction and held on a $75,000 bail, prosecutors said.

He is expect to return to court on Oct. 24.

Photo courtesy of GoogleMaps/Sept. 2017