Raymond Erving, 41, of Camden (aka Levar M. Taylor) (Salem County Correctional Facility)
WOODBURY — A grand jury has indicted a man on charges that he broke into two vacant Monroe Township homes and leased them to unsuspecting renters.
Raymond Erving, 41, is accused of pulling similar schemes in several towns around South Jersey and was indicted in December on charges of doing the same thing at a home in Woodbury.
in the Monroe cases, authorities allege Erving broke into houses on Black Oak and White Oak roads in 2016, had utilities turned on, drew up leases and moved people into both homes. The homes he targeted were in foreclosure, authorities said.
Erving also lived in the Black Oak Road home, according to police.
He allegedly received more than $12,000 from people seeking to lease the homes for cash in Monroe, police said at the time of his arrest last May.
Erving was indicted on charges including criminal mischief, burglary, deceptive business practices, theft, drug possession and sex offender failing to register a change of address.
When Erving, who is a registered sex offender, moved into the Monroe home, he failed to notify police of his new address as required by Megan’s Law. His last known address was in Camden.
Monroe Township authorities became aware that something wasn’t right when neighbors called to report squatters in the two homes. When officers came to investigate, the residents showed them the bogus lease agreements.
One of the rental scam victims in Monroe, a nursing student and mother of four, said she met Erving through a relative who was renting from him in another town. She said she was devastated and embarrassed when she learned she had been duped.
“When I first moved here, everybody welcomed me to the neighborhood,” she recalled. That joy soon turned to disbelief.
“I just couldn’t believe it. I was in shock. … He took all of my money.”
Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
