COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

CITATION: R. v. Corey, 2012 ONCA 725

DATE: 20121026

DOCKET: C54271

Goudge, Rouleau and Watt JJ.A.

BETWEEN

Her Majesty the Queen

Respondent

and

Gary Edward Corey

Applicant (Appellant)

Counsel:

Sherri Beattie, for the appellant

Scott Latimer, for the respondent

Heard and released orally: October 23, 2012

On appeal from the conviction entered on March 1, 2011 and the sentence imposed on May 5, 2011 by Justice Mary Teresa E. Devlin of the Ontario Court of Justice, sitting without a jury.

APPEAL BOOK ENDORSEMENT

[1] The appellant argues that the trial judge erred in finding irrelevant the fact that in 18 cases, other than the 16 for which he was charged, he did not act fraudulently. The appellant further argues that the trial judge erred in finding without evidence, that this is a common pattern in fraud cases. He did not pursue his sentence appeal.

[2] We do not agree with either submission. The trial judge’s common practice comment is not something she relied on in reaching her conclusion. Moreover, it is simply common sense.

[3] By saying the 18 cases were irrelevant, the trial judge was saying no more than that she was not prepared to find that the appellant’s intention in these 18 cases spoke to his intention in any of the 16 cases before the court. That was a conclusion entirely open on this record. There was ample other evidence of the appellant’s mens rea in the 16 cases and we see no error in the appellant’s conviction.

[4] The appeal must be dismissed. The sentence appeal is abandoned.