The accused were tried on fraud over $5000 charges arising from fraudulent corporate cheques issued by an employee of the victim company to the accuseds' businesses.
The court treated the employee witness as an unsavoury witness and applied a Vetrovec warning, finding that actual knowledge of the internal falsification of records was not proven against either accused.
However, applying the fraud framework and the doctrine of wilful blindness, the court held that each accused knowingly engaged in dishonest dealing by accepting large cheques from a company to which neither was entitled, remitting false HST and income tax to make the transactions appear legitimate, and failing to make obvious inquiries.
A co-conspirator statement was admitted against the second accused under the Carter test.
Both accused were found guilty as charged.
