Man charged with confining, assaulting boy to plead guilty next week: lawyer

By Melanie Patten, The Canadian Press - Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 11:52 AM - 0 Comments

HALIFAX – A man accused of confining and sexually assaulting a teenage boy at a home in rural Nova Scotia will plead guilty to some charges in the case, his lawyer said Thursday.

Mike Taylor said in an interview that David James Leblanc will enter guilty pleas on a number of charges when he appears next Thursday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Bridgewater.

Taylor declined to specify which charges Leblanc intends to plead guilty to, but said the matter would be finalized when the pleas are entered.

“I don’t want to get into the details of them, but … (the charges) basically encompass the allegations,” Taylor said from his office in Halifax.

Taylor said the remaining charges would be dropped by the Crown, likely during sentencing about two or three weeks after Leblanc pleads. Continue…

Alberta youths who shot sleeping five year old get maximum youth sentence

By The Canadian Press - Friday, May 10, 2013 at 1:12 PM - 0 Comments

WETASKIWIN, Alta. – Three young people involved in the shooting death of a five-year-old boy on a reserve south of Edmonton have received the maximum youth sentence for manslaughter.

The teens took turns firing a rifle at a home on the Samson Cree reserve in July 2011, and one of the bullets hit Ethan Yellowbird in the head as he slept in his bed.

Two of the youths fired bullets into the home and one fired a shot over the house.

The three pleaded guilty last fall to manslaughter.

The judge who has sentenced the teens called the crime an act of domestic terrorism.

The maximum youth sentence is two years custody and one year probation.

Singer from ‘As I Lay Dying’ metal band says he’s not guilty in wife’s murder plot

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 10, 2013 at 10:05 AM - 0 Comments

Tim Lambesis/As I Lay Dying

Tim Lambesis, the lead singer in the Christian heavy metal band As I Lay Dying, has pleaded not guilty in a plot to hire a hit man to kill his wife.

Lambesis, 32, was arrested in Oceanside, north of San Diego on Tuesday after police allege he had a conversation with a man who was an undercover cop. Police say Lambesis paid the undercover cop $1,000 to kill his estranged wife, Meggan Lambesis. He also gave the official details about how to carry out the hit, including photograph, an address, a security gate code and dates he would be with their children to give him an alibi, reports The Associated Press.

Lambesis pleaded not guilty to a charge of solicitation of murder in a California courtroom Thursday. A judge set his bail at $3 million and ordered him to wear a GPS tracking device until his next court appearance.

The couple had filed for a divorce, which had not yet gone through. Papers filed in court showed that the spilt was mainly amicable. Tim and Meggan Lambesis have three children — ages 4, 8 and 10 — who were all adopted from Ethiopia. Continue…

Sophisticated network of global thieves drain cash machines in 27 countries of $45m

By Colleen Long, The Associated Press - Friday, May 10, 2013 at 9:21 AM - 0 Comments

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The sophistication of a global network of thieves who drained cash machines around the globe of an astonishing $45 million in mere hours sent ripples through the security world, not merely for the size of the operation and ease with which it was carried out, but also for the threat that more such thefts may be in store.

Seven people were arrested in the U.S., accused of operating the New York cell of what prosecutors said was a network that carried out thefts at ATMs in 27 countries from Canada to Russia. Law enforcement agencies from more than a dozen nations were involved in the investigation, U.S. prosecutors in New York said Thursday.

“Unfortunately these types of cybercrimes involving ATMs, where you’ve got a flash mob going out across the globe, are becoming more and more common,” said Rose Romero, a former federal prosecutor and regional director for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“I expect there will be many more” of these types of crimes, she said. Continue…

Woman arrested for allegedly swapping OJ with poison at Starbucks

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 11:11 AM - 0 Comments

Police have arrested a woman in San Jose, Cal. who they allege was adding rubbing alcohol to bottles of orange juice, which she then placed into a beverage cooler at Starbucks.

According to a report at MercuryNews.com, police made the arrest on Monday after a customer reported seeing a woman take two bottles of orange juice out of her purse and put them into the case.

Employees reportedly examined the bottles and found them to be emanating what police later described as a “toxic smell.” They then called police. Continue…

Boy, 15, faces $759 in fines after caught going 175 km/h in family’s Cadillac

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 3:20 PM - 0 Comments

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – A 15-year-old boy from Abbotsford, B.C., has some explaining to do after being stopped while speeding in the family Cadillac and given tickets totalling $759.

Oh yes, and the Caddy was impounded for a week.

Police say the boy apparently took the family’s 2008 Cadillac CTS without permission last Saturday to meet a girl.

It seems he was trying to get the vehicle back home before anyone would notice it was missing when he sped past a Mountie on the Trans-Canada Highway about 2 a.m.

Corp. Robert McDonald says the boy was travelling 175 kilometres an hour in a 100 kilometre zone when he was pulled over.

McDonald says the boy was ticketed for speeding and driving without a license.

Government will back private bill to toughen some murder sentences

By Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press - Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 2:03 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – The Harper government is throwing its support behind a private member’s bill that would keep some killers behind bars for up to 40 years before becoming eligible for parole.

The bill introduced by Manitoba Conservative James Bezan would allow judges to impose sentences of up to 40 years without parole for murders which involve a kidnapping and a sexual offence against the victim.

Currently, parole eligibility kicks in after 25 years — although Bezan said his research shows that for the class of crimes his bill targets, no offender has ever been granted parole.

“I want to stress that this is not about increasing punishment to the individuals who have committed these crimes,” Bezan said at a news conference on Parliament Hill. “From what we can tell, they never get out of jail anyway.

“This is about giving the families (of victims) the peace of not having to go through these terrible experiences.” Continue…

Home invasion leads police to 8,000 cookies believed laced with pot

By The Canadian Press - Friday, April 19, 2013 at 10:44 PM - 0 Comments

SURREY, B.C. – The cookie crumbled the wrong way for a pair of thieves when a home invasion led police in Surrey, B.C., to thousands of cookies believed to be laced with marijuana.

The RCMP say a 22-year-old man interrupted two intruders in his home on Thursday and was struck on the head with a crowbar.

Despite the attack, the victim managed to fight off his assailants, who escaped.

The investigation led police to another home where they discovered an amount of marijuana and 8,000 cookies, thought to be loaded with pot.

Now police say two women in the second home, along with the man assaulted in the original attack, are facing drug charges.

The Mounties are still searching for the two men behind the home invasion.

Toronto police warn public against ‘black money’ scam

By The Canadian Press - Monday, April 15, 2013 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – The public is being warned to steer clear of a scam in which fraudsters use counterfeit bills coated in a black substance to dupe their victims.

In a recent case, Toronto police say a victim took out a real estate ad for the sale of a commercial property and was contacted by five men who said they had a large sum of money coming in from South Africa to pay for the property.

The money itself was covered in a dark coating and police say the victim was told to cover the cost of cleaning the bills while being promised more cash.

Authorities say the victim gave a large sum of money to the men before learning that the coated money was fake.

Police say the victim lost approximately $450,000.

Herman Fankem, 32, of Montreal, has been arrested and charged with fraud over $5,000.

Police believe there may be other victims and are asking anyone with information to come forward.

“Once the victim is bought into this scam, it’s very difficult for them to come out of that. They’ve bought into it, they believe in it and then the props just reinforce that,” said Det. Alan Spratt.

“Many of the suspects in this scam are very good at building rapport with the victims. They’re very clever, they’re very devious and they practice this.”

Spratt said the victim in such scams is often asked to pay for a variety of ballooning costs by the fraudsters involving cleaning chemicals, accounting fees and custom clearance payments.

The PBO tallies the cost of crime policy

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 9:55 AM - 0 Comments

The Parliamentary Budget Officer has released an “expenditure analysis of criminal justice in Canada.”

As a percentage of GDP, total criminal justice system expenditures trended downwards from 2002 to 2006 (1.032% to 0.968%) and since 2006 they have steadily increased to 1.115% in 2012…

Correction expenditures as a percentage of GDP declined for the federal government from 2001-2002 through 2005-2006 (0.131% to 0.114%) and increased through 2011-2012 (0.150%). For the provinces’ and territories’ correction expenditures as a percentage of GDP declined through 2006-2007 (0.116% to 0.093%) and have increased to 2011-2012 (0.109%).

In total, the PBO finds that the federal and provincial governments spent $20.3 billion in 2011-2012, comparable to the budget of National Defence, with the provinces carrying just less than three-fourths of that cost.

‘Canadians are angered and in a state of shock over the actions of the NDP leader’

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 18, 2013 at 4:40 PM - 0 Comments

Shortly before QP, the government sent up Roxanne James to report the following.

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are angered and in a state of shock over the actions of the NDP leader. This past weekend the leader of the NDP met with convicted cop shooter Gary Freeman, a man who was convicted of attempted murder in the U.S. after repeatedly shooting a young Chicago police officer, Terrence Knox, who was left permanently paralyzed and suffering from the effects of the shooting until his recent death. Rather than face due justice, Gary Freeman evaded the law for several years by fleeing to Canada and living here illegally under a false name. This is the man who the Leader of the Opposition chose to meet with. Sadly, it is telling that the NDP leader has never met with the family of the victim. Instead, he went on national television yesterday to shamefully dismiss the repeated shooting as a mere scuffle. Canadians are getting fed up seeing the NDP stand up for the rights of criminals over the rights of victims and their families time and time again.

Later, during QP, Conservative backbencher Kevin Sorenson stood to hold the government account thusly.

Mr. Speaker, after bashing Canada’s natural resource sector and Canadian jobs while in Washington, the Leader of the Opposition made it a priority to visit with convicted cop shooter, Gary Freeman. The Leader of the Opposition continues to defend this admitted and convicted felon, and pressed for him to be allowed to come on up and live in Canada, despite the fact that Gary Freeman is a citizen of the United States and was never a citizen or lawful resident of Canada. Can the Minister of Public Safety tell the House whether our Conservative government supports this reckless and dangerous idea?

Vic Toews duly stood and responded.

Mr. Speaker, it is truly shameful that when the Leader of the Opposition goes abroad his priority is importing violent criminals into Canada. Mr. Freeman shot a front-line Chicago police officer, not once, not twice but three times, leaving that officer permanently paralyzed. These kinds of foreign nationals, convicted of dangerous and violent crimes, are not admissible to Canada. Reckless policies on immigration, like opposing the faster removal of foreign criminals bill and advocating for those who shoot brave front-line peace—

Ms. James errs in her report. Gary Freeman was not “convicted of attempted murder,” he pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated battery. The rest of Mr. Freeman’s story is reviewed here.

Surrey’s mayor ‘very concerned’ about recent spate of murders, crime

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 6:32 AM - 0 Comments

SURREY, B.C. – The body count in British Columbia’s fastest growing city is growing again, after Surrey police discovered two more bodies along a secluded rural road known for harbouring shady criminal activity.

Surrey has had eight murders since the beginning of 2013 — more than double the rate of neighbouring big city Vancouver.

Four of those bodies have turned up at the same isolated site on Colebrook Road in the past six weeks — a statistic that has Mayor Dianne Watts “very concerned.”

“It’s a magnet for people who want to conduct criminal activity,” she said.

Watts said she’ll be meeting with residents and police to determine what can be done to increase security in the area.

Continue…

Three women shot at Brampton strip club; two in critical condition

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 6:03 AM - 0 Comments

BRAMPTON, Ont. – Three women are in hospital after being shot early today at a strip club in Brampton, Ont.

Peel Region Police Const. George Tudos told CP24 that two of the women are in critical but stable condition and the third suffered non-life threatening injuries.

The women were shot at about 1:30 a.m. at a club called The Office (on Melanie Dr., near Steeles and Torbram).

The women’s names and ages have not been release, nor have police indicated if the women were patrons at the club or performers.

Tudos says investigators are talking with witnesses and will go over any available surveillance video to determine exactly what happened.

No arrests have been made.

Noted in the crime blotter: Murder mansion, the Torch Gang and a gift-card crime ring

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 8:56 PM - 0 Comments

Crime notes from all over …

British Columbia: New Westminster police didn’t have to far to go to solve an auto theft case in early March. An officer saw an allegedly stolen minivan parked half a block from their headquarters. After the van drove a short distance, the driver jumped out and was quickly apprehended—and turned out to be a 22-year-old serial car thief who’d been released from jail earlier that day; he was there for auto theft.

Manitoba: A large rooming house in Winnipeg that’s come to be known as “murder mansion” was the site of another alleged homicide in late February—the third in five years. Ronald Harold McKinnon, 54, a resident of the home, was found unconscious and later died of his injuries. In early March police charged a 38-year-old man, also a resident of the home, with manslaughter.

Ontario: Since October 2010 the so-called Torch Gang had perfected the crime of breaking into ATM machines, using—what else?—torches to knock off bank machines in under 60 seconds. After 130 ATM thefts totalling more than $1 million, Ottawa police nabbed four alleged members of the gang, including a father and son.

Quebec: For the fourth time in recent months a Quebec City student has been charged with using Facebook to utter death threats against other students and teachers. The 17-year-old vowed to go on a killing spree at his former high school. Back in January, three teens—two boys and a girl aged 14 to 16—were charged with conspiracy to commit murder after they chatted on Facebook about using guns to kill school administrators and students.

Newfoundland: Police in St. John’s cracked a large gift-card crime ring, seizing more than 300 prepaid cards and credit cards after a raid on a hotel. The cards, from retailers such as Esso and Wal-Mart, were found after police received a tip about suspicious activity. Three men and two women face charges of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and possessing instruments for copying credit-card data.

Debit card fraud skimming losses fall to lowest level on record: Interac

By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 11:12 AM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – Interac Association says Interac debit card fraud losses, as a result of skimming, are at their lowest level on record since 2003 — falling to $38.5 million in 2012 from a high of $142 million in 2009.

This represents fewer than one per cent of domestic Interac debit card volume and the lowest volume of fraud losses since data was first recorded in 2003.

In addition, says Interac, the number of cardholders reimbursed fell to 93,800 in 2012 from 238,000 in 2009.

Caroline Hubberstey, the head of external communications for Interac Association, says the ongoing conversion to chip technology is a vital tactic in the fraud prevention strategy.

Interac says unlike a magnetic stripe, chip technology makes it extremely difficult to copy and reproduce.

By the end of January, 99 per cent of all active Interac debit cards 99.6 per cent of automatic banking machines (ABMs) had been converted to chip.

Domestic ripple over beer leads to assault with chips and dip

By The Canadian Press - Friday, March 1, 2013 at 3:15 PM - 0 Comments

LINDSAY, Ont. –  A Lindsay, Ont., couple are facing charges for allegedly assaulting each other with chips and dip.

Police say they were called early Friday to a home in the community west of Peterborough, where there had already been 15 previously documented domestic disputes.

When officers arrived at the scene of the disturbance just after 1 a.m., they found both people covered in chips and dip after apparently fighting over the last beer.

A 39-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman both face charges of domestic-related assault and will appear in court on March 28.

Their names were not released.

Could this be the end of ‘Mr. Big’ sting operations?

By Charlie Gillis - Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 4:50 PM - 0 Comments

Nelson Lloyd Hart being escorted to court in Gander, Nfld., on June 13, 2005. (Scott Cook/CP)

If you follow the crime news, you’re probably familiar with so-called “Mr. Big” operations, in which undercover cops lure a suspect into a phony criminal organization, then get the unwitting naïf to confess to past crimes by demanding he establish his bad-guy bona fides.

The RCMP have become uncommonly fond of these charades despite complaints they amount to entrapment. Now their legality is about to be put to the test: the Supreme Court announced today it will hear the case of Nelson Lloyd Hart, a Newfoundland man who confessed during a Mr. Big sting to drowning his twin three-year-old daughters, Karen and Krista.

The winding and tragic Hart saga was told in magnificent detail by my colleague Nick Köhler back in 2006, and highlights the problems with this method. Hart had a Grade 5 education, a gambling problem and was on social assistance at the time his girls died in Gander Lake. He told police at the time he’d had an epileptic seizure that day—that he didn’t know how the girls ended up in the water.

Continue…

Man arrested in connection with 2010 bomb at Canadian Forces centre in Quebec

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 3:37 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – A man has been arrested in connection with the bombing of a Canadian Forces recruitment centre in Quebec in 2010, the RCMP said Wednesday.

RCMP Cpl. Luc Thibault said four locations that were searched were linked to the Trois-Rivieres bombing, which resulted in material damage but no injuries.

The Mounties seized evidence while conducting raids in Montreal and other Quebec towns as well as at a college in Sainte-Therese, north of Montreal.

Two of the searches were carried out on Monday when investigators targeted an apartment in Saguenay, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City, and a residence in Saint-Hubert, south of Montreal.

Continue…

Samurai sword-wielding thieves hit London, Ont., pizza shop

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 4:42 PM - 0 Comments

LONDON, Ont. – Police say three boys are facing a total of 14 charges after masked thieves, one brandishing a samurai sword, held up a London, Ont., pizza parlour.

Police say three suspects, one wielding a samurai sword and another carrying a hunting knife, entered Twice the Deal Pizza just before 11 p.m. on Valentine’s Day.

Investigators say they demanded money, and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash before officers arrived.

Continue…

New ‘high-risk’ category will keep mentally ill offenders under wraps: Harper

By The Canadian Press - Friday, February 8, 2013 at 2:10 PM - 0 Comments

VANCOUVER – The Conservative government is providing courts with new powers to lock up people found not criminally responsible for their crimes due to mental problems.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the government’s latest tough-on-crime legislation targets people who are found to be too dangerous to be released.

“The new legislation introduced today focuses on victims and places public safety at the forefront of decision-making,” Harper said Friday in Vancouver, where he was joined by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Heritage Minister James Moore.

“This will ensure that ‘not-criminally-responsible’ accused people found to be too dangerous to be released are no longer a threat to their victims or Canadian communities.”

Continue…

18 charged in $200-million global credit card scam

By By Katie Zezima, The Associated Press - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 at 6:37 AM - 0 Comments

NEWARK, N.J. – Eighteen people have been charged in what may be one of the largest U.S. credit card fraud rings, a sprawling international scam that duped credit rating agencies and used thousands of fake identities to steal at least $200 million, federal authorities said Tuesday.

The elaborate scheme involved improving fake cardholders’ credit scores, allowing the scammers to borrow more money that they never repaid, investigators said.

“The accused availed themselves of a virtual cafeteria of sophisticated frauds and schemes, whose main menu items were greed and deceit,” said David Velazquez, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Newark field office.

The U.S. attorney in Newark, Paul Fishman, described an intricate Jersey City-based con that began in 2007, operated in at least 28 states and wired money to Pakistan, India, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Romania, China and Japan.

Continue…

No more Bonnie and Clydes as bank robberies are out of fashion

By macleans.ca - Monday, February 4, 2013 at 8:40 PM - 0 Comments

Everyone wants to be a cyber criminal these days, as online theft has supplanted the straight-up bank robbery.

A report in the Wall Street Journal sees bank robbery stats cut in half in the last decade. And the preliminary numbers from 2012 put holdups at 3,870, down from more than 5,000 a year earlier.

Of course, the decline is not just about trendiness. Numbers of robberies started to decrease in the 1990s when banks bolstered security, installing “bandit barriers”—bullet proof glass between the teller and customer. Tighter federal sentencing for those convicted of bank heists have also brought down the numbers.

While online thefts do result in more overall money lost than bank robberies, it comes with less physical violence. And less big-screen glamour.

Four people wounded in shooting at Richmond, B.C. banquet hall

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 9:06 AM - 0 Comments

RICHMOND, B.C. – Mounties believe four people injured in Metro Vancouver’s latest shooting were targeted, but the violence at a Richmond, B.C., gathering on Wednesday night is not being linked to other recent deadly attacks.

“There is no information to suggest that this is related to anything out of the events that have occurred in the Lower Mainland in the last week,” said RCMP Insp. Bryon Massie.

He said two men have critical injuries and two others were being treated for less serious gunshot wounds in the wake of the shooting at around 9 p.m. at the Riverside Banquet Hall in northeast Richmond.

One unidentified eyewitness told radio station News1130 that one person was shot in the neck during an argument and three people who tried to intervene were also shot. Continue…

The Conservatives and the crime rate

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 8:56 AM - 0 Comments

Vic Toews acknowledges that the crime rate is going down, this time in a speech on increasing policing costs.

“I’ll be blunt,” Mr. Toews said. “Police services face two options: They can do nothing and eventually be forced to cut drastically, as we have seen in some countries. Or they can be proactive, get ahead of the curve and have greater flexibility in designing and implementing both incremental and meaningful structural reforms.”

The crime rate has required the Conservatives to perform an awkward dance over the years: from dismissing the relevancy of such statistics to dismissing less rigorous forms of analysis to pointing to statistics as proof that their policies are working. As of last July, Mr. Toews had fashioned a new position: the drop in the crime rate demonstrated the success of the Conservatives approach, but the fact that the crime rate was lower in 1962 meant that more had to be done. Conservative MP Guy Lauzon expanded on that idea a week later.