A 50-year-old Midland-area man with a long record of fraud convictions was sentenced Tuesday to a total of 17 months in jail for approaching women on a dating website despite a judge's order that he stop.
Enrico Cagnotti of Tiny Township pleaded guilty during an Ontario Court of Justice hearing before Judge G. J. Brophy to three charges of breach of probation and a fourth of disobeying a court order. In sentencing Cagnotti, the judge rejected calls for less jail time by both the defence and Crown.
Brophy said Cagnotti "needs to be sharply reprimanded" and described his behaviour in cruising for fraud targets on the Internet as "behaviour that needs to be denounced."
Defence lawyer Mary Hewitt argued that her client's jail sentence should be limited to the 113 days he has already served in custody. Grey County assistant Crown attorney Michael Martin maintained that Cagnotti should serve two months in addition to the jail time he has already served.
Cagnotti was outraged by the judge's decision. He said he only pleaded guilty because he knew that the Crown was seeking limited additional jail time.
"I wanted to go for trial," Cagnotti said.
"A lot of my evidence was obtained without a warrant," he told the judge. "I don't think it's fair."
As Cagnotti left the prisoner's dock, he could be heard to say "I'm going to appeal now."
In sentencing, Brophy cited Cagnotti's lengthy criminal record that began in 1996 with a conviction for uttering threats and includes more than 20 more convictions and lengthy jail terms for crimes including fraud, theft and forgery.
Martin said Cagnotti approached women on the dating site, plentyoffish.com,using the pseudonyms "Roma 27" and "Mr. Intrigue" and misrepresented details of his identity.
In one case, a Barrie woman complained to police there about a possible fraud after Cagnotti met with her face to face on four dates. He told her he drove a $1 million Mercedes. The woman became concerned and contacted police.
