B.C. fraudster blew aboriginal money on booze, casinos

B.C. fraudster blew aboriginal money on booze, casinos
By Keith Fraser, Postmedia News


VANCOUVER — One of two men who defrauded two aboriginal organizations of nearly $1 million blew his share of the money on drinking and gambling, a judge heard Tuesday.


Last year, Craig Morrison and Dennis Wells pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 in connection with a scheme that siphoned money from the Aboriginal Council of B.C. and the B.C. Aboriginal Fisheries Commission.


Morrison was the bookkeeper for the two organizations and diverted the funds to his cousin, Wells, over a three-year period.


In sentencing submissions in a Vancouver courtroom Tuesday, Wells' lawyer, Pat Angly, said that at the time of the offences, his client was drinking too much and started frequenting casinos.


Wells and Morrison shared the nearly $1 million taken from the two organizations, he said.


"He just basically blew the money on drinking and gambling sprees at the casino," Angly told B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen. "It's hard for him to comprehend the amount of money they went through at the time . . . he always knew he was going to be caught."


Angly said a mitigating factor for his client was that he was not in the position of trust that Morrison was in at the time.


He said that Wells' aboriginal heritage and difficult family background should be considered, and he called for a conditional sentence to be imposed.


"He's shown by his actions since this occurred that he's not a person likely to re-offend."


Wells, 55, a father of two, told the judge that in December he had gone north with his family and spoken to members of the aboriginal community about his feelings of shame over his crimes.


"I'm disgusted with the way I acted, how I behaved. I had no intention of going that far . . . I'm sorry to all the people I hurt in those two companies."


Morrison's lawyer, Isaac Ferbey, last October argued for a conditional sentence for his client.


On Tuesday he told the court that his client had a family situation in December that reinforced the need for the conditional sentence.


Morrison, 34, said that he had undergone counselling and was facing up to the crimes that he had committed and to the family development.


"It's just been a cycle of shame and guilt. As I continue on in counselling, I'm able to deal more with it."


The Crown is calling for a four-year jail term for Morrison and a two-and-a-half to three-year jail term for Wells.


Court heard that most of the 199 fraudulent transactions involved Morrison diverting money by direct bank transfer to an account held by Wells. Some was done through cheques with forged signatures.


The fraud was perpetrated from November 2002 to November 2005, and was only discovered when Morrison was laid off and a review of the organizations' finances was conducted.


Federal funding to the two groups, which advanced the interests of First Nations people, was cut off and both eventually collapsed.


The judge is expected to impose sentence Wednesday.



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