Menlo Park woman sentenced after scamming landlords to live for free

The woman posed as an investor then refused to pay rent, the DA's office said.

A Menlo Park woman who lived for free in expensive areas across Silicon Valley — scamming landlords out of tens of thousands of dollars in rent — was sentenced to more than two years in jail, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

Posing as an investor, 62-year-old Rebecca Violette, also known as Rebekah Violette, lied about her income and prior evictions on rental applications and used bad checks to pay her first and last month’s rent, authorities said.

After she moved into a property, she refused to pay rent. Landlords would then have to go through a “lengthy and expensive” eviction process, the DA’s office said.

“Renters and landlords should all be cautious. Anyone could fall victim to a well-honed scheme,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a news release. “We encourage careful background checks before renting to anyone.”

Violette has been prosecuted for this scam several times over the past decade, authorities said, spending multiple periods in jail and racking up multiple convictions.

Violette pleaded to three counts of passing bad checks, three counts of grand theft and one count of attempted theft. Authorities said the count of attempted theft related to a case where a prospective landlord performed an online search of Violette’s name before turning over control of the property.

On June 26, she was sentenced to serve one year in jail followed by one year and four months of mandatory supervision.