PORT ST. LUCIE — Two men each face a grand theft charge after police linked them to a scheme in which a home was rented to a family without the homeowners’ knowledge, according to recently obtained records and a detective.

Robbie Jay Hughes, 36, and 46-year-old Issiac Rivers were arrested Monday after police accused them of renting a home in foreclosure to a family in September 2009.

Police began investigating after the owners of the home in the 5400 block of Northwest Cromey Street, who live in New York, got a refund check from Florida Power & Light Co., Detective Kim Bailey said.

A husband, wife and son apparently were living in the home. The wife said the residence was rented with Hughes’ Phenomenal Resolutions Corp. and showed investigators a lease agreement. Rivers, of the 2100 block of Southwest Leafy Road, had collected a deposit, first month’s rent and pro-rated rent, a warrant application shows.

Hughes initially told police he had a contract with the homeowners to buy the residence, though Bailey said there was no legitimate contract.

Instead, Bailey said Hughes contacted the homeowners in New York about a year after the Northwest Cromey Street residence had been in foreclosure. They received some contractual paperwork from Hughes, but didn’t return it, saying it looked “generic.”

One of the renters told investigators they found the home by calling a phone number on a “house for rent” sign in the city. The wife called and spoke to Rivers, who showed her the Northwest Cromey Street residence.

According to Bailey, Hughes mailed the paperwork to the homeowners days after he’d gotten the locks changed.

Hughes eventually refunded nearly all of the rental money and didn’t want the renters to speak with police about the matter.

Hughes told police the “problem … was we moved the tenants in before receiving the paperwork back.”

Bailey said Hughes is suspected of renting out another home under similar circumstances, but the homeowners in that case declined to press charges.

Rivers said he owns a business involved in property management and that he “helped Robbie Hughes too much,” the warrant application states.

Bailey said she’s investigating the men in connection with a similar incident at another home in the city.

By Will Greenlee

Tags: foreclosure, grand theft, renting

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 10:08 am and is filed under Crime, Port St. Lucie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.