- Joined
- Aug 30, 2007
- Messages
- 34
Easy money isn`t always easy. Another gray area player faces the consequences some years later. What did she really gain in the end? My apologies for posting the article, but I was not able to paste in the link.
Nov 14, 2007
By JACK WILSON
Advocate staff
A former Sylvan Lake real estate agent received a conditional sentence and a fine for her part in a false pretenses scam in three Central Alberta towns.
Brenda Watson, 44, who now lives on Vancouver Island, was fined $42,000 and sentenced to a year of house and community-based arrest when she appeared in Red Deer Court of Queen`s Bench on Tuesday.
Watson had been charged with 26 counts of making false pretenses and four counts of possession of stolen property.
The plea arrangement between the Crown and defence was worked out to a single guilty count of making false pretenses.
Crown prosecutor Anders Quist told Justice Vital Ouellette that the scam ran between Aug. 1, 2002, and Dec. 31, 2003.
It involved two houses in Red Deer and single homes in Sylvan Lake and Eckville.
Quist said a group of people including Watson acquired houses and then sold them to a "puppet buyer" for an inflated price.
The puppet buyer then submitted a false application to a bank, which approved a mortgage.
The house price was then reduced and sold again.
Quist said the group made profits of between $23,700 and $30,800 on the four houses for a total of $114,400.
Quist said the bank was never out the money.
He said the case would have been difficult to prove at a lengthy trial.
Watson, who didn`t have a criminal record, was the only person charged in the scam.
Quist said the real punishment for Watson is that she now carries a criminal record.
Defence lawyer Greg Delbigio of Vancouver told court that his client planned to plead guilty all along even though the case has taken this long to resolve.
Watson will serve three months of house arrest where she`s only allowed out to work at her job teaching life skills to native people at Malspina University College in Nanaimo and attend to other necessities of life such as shopping and health appointments.
She must also perform 120 hours of community service. Contact Jack Wilson at [email protected]
Nov 14, 2007
By JACK WILSON
Advocate staff
A former Sylvan Lake real estate agent received a conditional sentence and a fine for her part in a false pretenses scam in three Central Alberta towns.
Brenda Watson, 44, who now lives on Vancouver Island, was fined $42,000 and sentenced to a year of house and community-based arrest when she appeared in Red Deer Court of Queen`s Bench on Tuesday.
Watson had been charged with 26 counts of making false pretenses and four counts of possession of stolen property.
The plea arrangement between the Crown and defence was worked out to a single guilty count of making false pretenses.
Crown prosecutor Anders Quist told Justice Vital Ouellette that the scam ran between Aug. 1, 2002, and Dec. 31, 2003.
It involved two houses in Red Deer and single homes in Sylvan Lake and Eckville.
Quist said a group of people including Watson acquired houses and then sold them to a "puppet buyer" for an inflated price.
The puppet buyer then submitted a false application to a bank, which approved a mortgage.
The house price was then reduced and sold again.
Quist said the group made profits of between $23,700 and $30,800 on the four houses for a total of $114,400.
Quist said the bank was never out the money.
He said the case would have been difficult to prove at a lengthy trial.
Watson, who didn`t have a criminal record, was the only person charged in the scam.
Quist said the real punishment for Watson is that she now carries a criminal record.
Defence lawyer Greg Delbigio of Vancouver told court that his client planned to plead guilty all along even though the case has taken this long to resolve.
Watson will serve three months of house arrest where she`s only allowed out to work at her job teaching life skills to native people at Malspina University College in Nanaimo and attend to other necessities of life such as shopping and health appointments.
She must also perform 120 hours of community service. Contact Jack Wilson at [email protected]