Lotto Winner and Alleged Oil Scammer Faces New Charges

The Chelmsford man who allegedly took more than $10,000 from area residents, including at least one person in Burlington and other customers in surrounding towns without performing the services he promised is now facing new charges after police said he never returned a rental car he's had since February.

According to a Lowell Sun article, police said that Michael A. Santaniello, 60, of 214 New Yorker Ave., Chelmsford, leased a Kia from a Westford rental-car company and never returned it.

Santaniello will next be arraigned on the new charges on Sept. 5 in Ayer District Court on a charge of failure to return a leased vehicle, according to The Sun.

The owner of Mike's Oil Heat Service was arrested last Tuesday and charged with allegedly taking $10,000 from victims, including a Wilmington customer.

"I just want to know why,” Leann Otis, 42, of Wilmington, said at the time according to a Boston Herald story. “I trusted him. I’ve known him for 20 years. Why screw people like that? ... It’s a relief just to know something is going to be done."

Santaniello's legal troubles come just about three years after he won $1 million on a scratch ticket. Though Santaniello receives $35,000 annually after taxes, his attorney informed the court that he is broke.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone said Santaniello won more than $23,000 in other lottery winnings between August 2009 and June 2011, according to The Sun article.

The Chelmsford resident is next slated to appear in Lowell District Court on Aug. 24 for a pretrial conference on the oil scam charges.