NEW YORK CITY — A Brooklyn couple who fleeced New Yorkers out of funeral money for a 5-year-old boy who's actually alive were arrested again after more victims came forward, prosecutors said.
Brittney Schmidt, 30, and Vincent Fina, 29, were re-arrested in Long Island and arraigned Monday after they collected money from businesses, firehouses and police precincts for a child with cancer and to send children with cancer to camp, District Attorney Madeline Singas announced.
"The defendants allegedly used the story of [a] sick five-year old to con strangers into giving them money," Singas said in a statement. “Thanks to the Lynbrook Police Department and media coverage, the defendants are now facing more charges for allegedly soliciting donations for fake causes and charities."
Dee Tirdao, 52, of Mill Basin, previously told DNAinfo New York the couple collected nearly $12,000 for a bogus funeral for her grandson Gianni Incandela — who is alive and living in Rossville while he battles a rare form of cancer. She added the couple previously took a flier with her grandson's picture off her office desk in Park Slope when they came in during an earlier scam where they claimed their own son had leukemia.
The couple was arrested in their Mapleton home March 3 by Long Island police after they brought their 11-year-old son to several businesses in Lynbrook to collect money for Incandela.
Since the arrest, other victims came forward and claimed the pair fleeced them out of "hundreds of dollars" in donations, prosecutors said.
The couple took their scam to firehouses in Queens, businesses and precincts in Brooklyn and businesses in Baldwin, Long Island from July to February.
They even coached their son to help get donations and kept him out of school to help with their scam, prosecutors said.
Fina and Schmidt were arraigned for a scheme to defraud and endangering the welfare of a child and were released to probation, the DA said.
If convicted, they could face up to four years in prison for the newest charges.
Contact information for their lawyer was not available.
