PATCHOGUE - After a three week trial and three hours of deliberations, a Suffolk jury today convicted a Medford man of burglary, grand larceny and fraud charges for breaking into foreclosed houses in Patchogue, Medford, Shirley, and Holbrook and renting out the homes to unsuspecting tenants.

Paul Salamone, 28, smashed lockboxes, changed locks, removed For Sale signs, and put guard dogs in the homes to keep realtors and the rightful owners of the property away while he searched for potential tenants.

Prosecutor Marc Lindemann of the Suffolk District Attorney’s Mortgage Fraud Unit said Salamone would research public records to find foreclosed properties.  

District Attorney Thomas Spota said evidence turned up by DA fraud investigators found that Salamone filed a total of thirteen 13 fraudulent liens with the county clerk’s office and the New York Department of State.  “These liens were based on phony debts that, even if they were valid, would not have allowed Salamone to break and enter the houses in question, much less rent them out,” DA Spota said. 

The district attorney said Salamone’s scheme relied on fraudulent liens, receipts and other paperwork that falsely legitimized “a con game that victimized tenants and the legal owners of the houses”. 

The defendant faces up to 20 years in prison.