Con Artists in Shoreline and Redmond

It’s been a big week for scam artists locally. A Shoreline couple who swindled a retired old lady out of $350,000--her life savings--was sentenced to 33 months in prison. Michael and Katie Lambard befriended Margaret Martin and adopted her as their "grandmother" before taking her entire estate. The Lambards took $200,000 when they helped Martin sell her home in Greenwood, and bought three new cars with checks signed by Martin. Martin has since died. The Lambards claim innocence: "Our crime is that we're uneducated and we didn't know what we were doing."

And a Redmond woman fell victim to a man posing as the landlord of a 3-bedroom house he was renting for under $1,000 per month. (This one ends on an upnote). Michelle Adame responded to a Craigslist advertisement and gave Paul Bakovich a $900 deposit for what seemed like a great deal. After delays raised some suspicion, she googled Bakovich and found that others had been scammed by him as well. The property in question had been foreclosed, and was not owned by Bakovich.

Adame, who had an upcoming meeting set for Bakovich, contacted the police. Upon arrest, Bakovich told the police he "did a stupid thing, and that he knows better." He used Adame’s deposit to repair his truck and buy food.