Former Police sergeant, who claimed vacant houses in property scam, has jail term cut

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PHOTO: Rosa Rossi

A former Victoria Police sergeant who used obscure laws to steal houses from her unsuspecting victims has had a year shaved off her jail term by two judges, who were still at pains to call her offending “breathtakingly dishonest”.

Rosa Rossi was originally sentenced in the County Court to four and a half years behind bars over the elaborate ruse, but claimed that sentence was “manifestly excessive” and launched an appeal.

Today, Justices Phillip Priest and Terry Forrest agreed and resentenced Rossi, ordering her to spend three and a half years behind bars.

They also reduced her parole period to one year and nine months, meaning she could be eligible for parole in June next year.

But the judges were frank about how the court viewed Rossi’s offending.

“It was cynical, premeditated and breathtakingly dishonest.

“We consider the applicant’s offending to have been … perpetrated by a person whose sworn duty it was to uphold the law.

“Her actions were calculated to erode the community’s trust in its police.”

However, they also acknowledged that Rossi’s victims did not suffer any “substantial financial loss”.

“This was not a case where a victim was left destitute as a result of the applicant’s fraudulent activity,” they said.

Scam targeted homeowners who were interstate, overseas

Between 2016 and 2017, Rossi claimed six vacant properties — three in the rural town of Willaura, near Ararat, and three in Melbourne — which together were conservatively valued at more than $2.6 million.

Her scam often followed a loose but distinctive pattern.

The 57-year-old would find a home that had been empty for some time and change the locks on the property, never explicitly telling the locksmith that she was not the owner.