Printed Could 09, 2024 • Final up to date Could 10, 2024 • 3 minute learn
Former funeral director Paul Taylor, who ran two companies in Simcoe, was convicted Thursday of a whole bunch of 1000’s in fraud. Picture by Web site picture
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“I took a 46-year career and threw it out the window,” former funeral director Paul Taylor informed a Simcoe Ontario Court docket choose on Thursday after being convicted of a serious fraud
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“At first, I saw myself trying to save the funeral home and now I see I breached people’s trust. That’s all I can say.”
Taylor, as soon as owned and operated Baldock Funeral Properties Inc. and South Coast Funeral & Cremation Alternate options in Simcoe.
However, after his son expressed issues abut monetary improprieties to the Bereavement Authority of Ontario, the regulator started investigating Taylor, suspending the licences of the 2 funeral amenities at first of 2020 and ultimately turning up proof of fraud, theft, solid paperwork and Taylor’s breach of belief.
In complete, the Bereavement Authority discovered Taylor had dedicated fraud to the tune of $386,064.97 over about 10 years.
“That you would be standing here, facing this, was inevitable from the moment you started,” stated Justice Robert Gee.
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“You were never going to catch up. During that 10-year period you had to realize your behaviour was criminal and had the potential to harm people when they were at their most vulnerable.”
Gee famous that in a single sufferer influence assertion, a girl stated Taylor took funds from her husband simply months earlier than his arrest “knowing this ‘house of cards’ was about to crumble.
In an agreed statement of facts, read to the court when Taylor pleaded guilty to fraud last November, it was revealed how Taylor defrauded the Bereavement Authority of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
At least 16 cases were found where Taylor used fraudulent death certificates or told banks he was moving trust funds that had been prepaid for funerals to other banks, totalling almost $140,000.
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At least 29 people were found who prepaid almost $170,000 for funerals and the money wasn’t put in a trust fund but used for operating expenses, which is illegal.
Another 73 estates didn’t get the proper refunds owed to them after a reconciliation of what was prepaid, interest earned and the final cost of the funeral. That came to about $76,765.
And Taylor took a small amount of donations — $270 – that were meant for the charity of a deceased person’s choice but never was paid out.
Funds were paid out to about 100 people by the Bereavement Authority, which has a special fund to reimburse any victims of funeral home fraud, so Taylor now owes $386,064.97 to the regulator and so far, has paid none.
Assistant Crown attorney Lynette Fritzley said she and defence lawyer James Battin had reached a joint submission for the court that would see Taylor, soon to turn 70 and facing hip surgery, working on restitution while on an 18-month community sentence, followed by three years of probation.
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“This is perhaps at the lower end of the range for fraud,” stated Fritzley, “but he has no criminal record and pleaded guilty relatively early.”
As effectively, stated the lawyer, Taylor has been shamed as his actions have turn into identified.
“There’s a certain amount of community justice,” Fritzley stated.
“He was a well-known member of the community. He’s been facing the condemnation of the community and will continue to have to deal with it.”
Gee stated Taylor’s lack of stature in the neighborhood was a consequence he needed to have been conscious of when he determined to commit fraud.
“Businesses fail often and that shouldn’t lead to criminal behaviour to avoid the stigma.”
The choose agreed with the 18-month group sentence with a 12 months of GPS-monitored home arrest, though he stated it was on the “light end” of the vary, and three years of probation.
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Throughout that point Taylor can pay $1,000 on the primary of every month.
Gee pressed to make sure that Taylor can handle these funds, mentioning that lacking them will probably be a breach and will result in actual jail “regardless of your age, health and the fact you have no other entries on your record.”
Taylor will have the ability to go away his home for work, emergencies, church and on Saturday afternoons however can’t be in command of different individuals’s cash.
On the finish of his probation, presumably having paid $54,000 to the Bereavement Authority, the rest of the reimbursement will turn into a stand-alone restitution order and the regulator will have the ability to pursue Taylor civilly.
The Bereavement Authority posted the main points of Taylor’s conviction and sentence on its web site Thursday and stated it has nothing so as to add in regards to the state of affairs.
SGamble
@EXPSGamble
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