Nina Willis, a Toronto tenant with a string of eviction notices, was found guilty of changing the locks on a house she rented and blocking her landlord from entering the home.

The hearing was held in a Toronto court on Friday. Willis failed to appear.

“Ms. Willis is obviously not here today to show any remorse and I would submit that a message needs to be sent and it needs to be more than a slap on the wrist,” said Crown prosecutor Adam Lawlor during sentencing.

To fail to do so would just be “encouragement for her to continue this kind of conduct,” he said.

Willis was convicted of two counts of obstructing her landlord’s right to enter the unit and one count of changing the lock without her landlord’s consent. Justice of the Peace Rhonda Roffey ordered Willis to pay $2,750 in the next six months.

The charges were laid by the enforcement and investigations arm of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing after Willis’s former landlord Darius Vakili complained. Each conviction carried a potential penalty up to $25,000. The ministry wouldn’t comment on Willis’s fine.

Willis was the focus of a Star investigation which revealed how tenants could use protections at the provincially funded Landlord and Tenant Board to stay in properties rent free. The Star found that prospective landlords had no way to learn about her past because a tenant’s past history is secret.

The Star used court and tribunal documents, as well as interviews with lawyers, paralegals and landlords to show Willis has been ordered out of at least six homes since 2005.

Landlord Vakili testified in provincial court on Friday that he had made two failed attempts in May and June 2012, to enter the Don Mills home he had rented to Willis for more than a year. The first time Willis confronted him and he left, the second time he tried to enter but the locks had been changed, court heard.

At one point in May Vakili was let inside, but was prevented from entering the basement or upstairs by a man inside the home, he said.

Vakili testified that the main floor of the house was crammed with furniture that was stacked as high as the ceiling, the locks on the front and side doors had been changed and the front door had been sealed from the inside with wooden boards. Willis was provided with written notice each time Vakili wanted to enter, court heard.

The Star found that Willis typically moves into a home then stops paying rent, or only pays portions of what she owes. When a landlord tries to evict her she appeals to the tenant board, often making allegations about maintenance issues and harassment and asks for adjournments. She also appeals eviction orders from the tenant board, again slowing her removal.

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Willis was evicted from the home she rented from Vakili in September 2012, after a long battle.

Willis is also facing fraud charges related to the Vakili case and one other previous landlord. Those charges, which will be heard in May, relate to allegations that Willis issued fraudulent cheques and provided false employment allegations.