There won’t be much room for posters where he’s going!
A Georgia man who conned collectors by peddling counterfeit horror-movie posters was sentenced to the maximum 6 1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay his victims $1.38 million in Manhattan federal court yesterday.
“This guy is the Bernie Madoff of the movie-poster industry,” victim Robert Rogovin, 65, said of Kerry Haggard.
Rogovin, a Scarsdale comic-shop owner, spent $20,000 on three pieces faked by Haggard.
“He’s a piece of human garbage,” he added.
Haggard worked his scam by paying a New York City printing company to make high-quality ink-jet copies of horror-movie posters of such classics as “The Mummy” and “Frankenstein.”
The 47-year-old would then sell the fakes to trusting collectors via such sites as eBay for prices ranging from $500 to $5,000.
Haggard, who now suffers from arthritis and walks with a cane, even ripped off close friends.
Jim Gresham, 59, became so close with Haggard the two men would talk several times a week and even went on a European cruise together with their wives.
But, all along, Haggard was trading his fake posters for Gresham’s authentic ones — like kids do with baseball cards — scamming the betrayed man out of $712,000.
One was an ultra-rare poster of 1935’s “Werewolf of London” flick.
“He ate our food, he came to church with us, and he stabbed me in the back,” the Michigan snowplow-business owner thundered in court.
“I put our retirement money into posters because it seemed safe. It was safe — until Kerry Haggard came along.”
When the judge adjourned court, the half-dozen gathered victims broke into applause and one gleefully shouted, “See you later, Kerry!”
During the hearing, Haggard tried to apologize, but Judge Colleen McMahon wasn’t buying it.
“Anyone who has a list of victims as long as yours is a serial criminal,” McMahon said. “You just didn’t get caught for a very long time.”