PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. — A person who broke the law and moved into a condo in Florida has been given 40 years in jail.
According to the State Attorney’s Office of the 14th Judicial Circuit, 37-year-old Olandis Hobbs was sentenced on Tuesday. He had been found guilty earlier this month of using fake papers to buy a house in the Panama City Beach area worth about $700,000.
The State Attorney’s Office said in a statement, “I hope this sends a strong message.” “Do not come to Northwest Florida and try to steal people’s identifications and/or property by squatting because we will not tolerate this.”
Hobbs is going to prison for 25 years for using someone else’s personal information fraudulently and for 15 years for big theft over $100,000. He will also be on probation for 30 years.
During his trial, it was shown that Hobbs lied on papers he sent to the Bay County Clerk of Circuit Court in late 2022 to change his name on the condo’s title. The formal owners of the land are a woman who is 85 years old and her children.
Hobbs has done the same thing in other places, like New York, and has been sued but never arrested.
The judge, Dustin Stephenson, told the defendant, “This might be your first important conviction, but it is a doozy.” “You stole rest from the sunset of someone’s life and should be punished for it.”
Reports from the past say that Hobbs changed the locks on the condo and told the managers that the owner had changed hands. Some formal owners live out of state, and a maid told them about the changes.
On January 13, 2023, Hobbs was arrested by the Panama City Beach Police Department after a search request was carried out.
“The minimum sentence required by law was 10 years,” the news release from the state attorney says. “Stephenson said there are matters of forgiveness and matters of justice, and forgiveness is not (his to give, but) justice is.”
