Left homeless after falling victim to a rental fraud, a Niagara woman and her children were forced to live in a pickup truck in the dead of winter.
She begged for money for gas so she could occasionally turn the engine over and heat up the truck, and sought food assistance from area churches.
Her teenaged son, who said living in the vehicle was like living in a “sardine can,” missed a month of school as he was unable to clean himself or his clothes.
The family would use the washroom at a Niagara Regional Police station and public restrooms.
Their nightmare began in 2021 after they came across an online advertisement from Mark Cipparone. He was offering a four-bedroom home for rent in Thorold.
Unable to afford rent alone, she and several friends decided to rent the home together.
The group, all on social assistance and some with children with “high needs,” toured the bungalow and liked what they saw.
They signed a rental agreement and gave the landlord several bank drafts totalling about $4,800.
As their move-in date approached, their new landlord began giving them various excuses as to why they could no longer move in.
He ultimately stopped communicating with them and their money was never returned. With nowhere else to turn, five people lived in the truck for a month.
Cipparone appeared in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Tuesday and was sentenced to 20 months in jail on multiple fraud-related charges.
“The time for leniency has passed,” Judge Fergus…
