Campton Hills man accused of $500,000 theft
A Campton Hills man already facing charges of bilking two clients out of more than $100,000 is now charged with writing bogus checks for a property worth at least $500,000, according to Kane County court records.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Peter A. Mazzara, 37, of the 3N600 block of James Fennimore Cooper Lane, on the charge of theft by deception of more than $500,000.
The new felony charge accuses Mazzara in November 2013 of writing three checks — one for a deposit, one for a month’s mortgage and one for prorated property taxes — to buy a home in the 3N900 block of Ralph Waldo Emerson Lane, Campton Hills, court records show.
The court documents don’t specify a value for home, but charge Mazzara wrote the checks “knowing there were insufficient funds in his account to cover any of those checks.”
According to the Zillow.com, the 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom, 4,200-square-foot home has an estimated value of $576,000 but is not currently for sale.
If convicted, Mazzara faces anywhere from probation to 15 years in prison. His bail was been set at $5 million.
A message left for Campton Hills Police Chief Dan Hoffman was not immediately returned.
Mazzara currently is free after posting $125,000 bond after his arrest in October 2012 on charges he bilked a woman out of at least $100,000 and cheated an elderly man out of more than $5,000 in June 2010 while acting as a financial planner. If convicted of theft of between $100,000 and $500,000 and financial exploitation of an elderly person, Mazzara also faces up to 15 years in prison. He is due in court on these charges Feb. 27.
Michael Morris, Mazzara’s defense attorney, said he was unaware of the new charge against his client and had no further comment.
Mazzara pleaded guilty in October 2012 to damaging a Kane County couple’s $1 million home from which he was evicted, and ordered to pay $60,000 restitution, court records show.