Newport Couple Get Probation for Squatting in Foreclosed Home

A husband and wife from Newport Beach were sentenced today for squatting in a foreclosed home, the Orange County district attorney's office reported.

Chris Wayne Duncan, 43, and Robin Ann Duncan, 37, both of Newport Beach, pleaded guilty to a court offer to one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to commit trespass and one misdemeanor count of trespass. The conspiracy count was filed by the D.A.'s office as a felony, but the court reduced it to a misdemeanor.

The Duncans were each sentenced to three years of informal probation, credit for time served for eight days in jail, and restitution. The amount will be determined at a later date.

The D.A.'s office objected to the sentence, arguing that "based on the fact that
defendants engaged in a conspiracy, the felony should not be reduced to a misdemeanor unless the defendants successfully complete probation."

The case against the Duncans began in April 2010. At that time Chris Duncan worked with an attorney to hire private investigator Tim Robinson to locate Orange County properties that were in foreclosure and vacant. Five months later Chris and his wife drafted a fradulent lease and moved in illegally to 10 Hidden Pass, a vacant home in foreclosure located in an exclusive gated community in Newport Coast.

Claiming to be renters, they contacted the gas and electric company and requested the utilities bill be put in their name. When the owner of the property, Suong L., sent an appraiser to the home to facilitate a short-sale for the property, the couple had already changed the locks. When they answered the door, the couple told the appraiser they were legal renters of the property, and to have the owner contact them directly, the D.A.'s office reported.

The owner reported the illegal squatting to Newport Beach police and the couple was on Jan. 5, 2010.