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Canada Post business analysts began referring to him as “the type of stamp.”
(Postmedia Network)
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Canada Post business analysts began referring to him as “the type of stamp.”
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For at least three years, Allan Fischer, 59, created fake business accounts with fake phone numbers, addresses and emails across Canada for mass mailing with the postal service.
First, he called Canada Post to get a fax request for bulk mail services. The application would be filled out and returned, usually by requesting the rush statement, which would allow the fake company to order up to $ 7,500 in credit products without credit verification.
Once Fischer had a new account, he would give up any bulk mail service and simply order stamps and prepaid products to ship to various UPS stores where he had mailboxes in southwestern Ontario.
And I would never pay the bills.
On Friday, Fischer was convicted of fraud and possession of property obtained for a felony valued at more than $ 5,000 for what High Court Judge Spencer Nicholson called “an elaborate and sophisticated scheme.”
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Between 2013 and 2016, using 48 fake business addresses, Fischer swindled Canada Post $ 234,763.31 in stamps and other products. He sold the stamps at a discount to several customers, some of whom found him online through kijiji ads.
Fischer’s scheme was so elaborate that the judge said he could not come to “any other conclusion that his act was intentional and for the purpose of obtaining Canada Post products without paying for them.”
The scheme had many layers. Fischer rented mailboxes throughout southwestern Ontario in London, St. Louis. Thomas, Tillsonburg, Woodstock, Cambridge, Chatham and Waterloo and would have shipped Canada Post products to fake companies in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia.
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Canada Post became suspicious when it began investigating between 50 and 60 unpaid business accounts, all for unpaid stamp products, and was unable to contact customers by the phone number listed.
Google searches would be empty and businesses and businesses either did not exist or the address provided did not match.
A Canada Post inspector began investigating 30 of the accounts in May 2016. One of the addresses was at the Central London Executive Center, where the inspector was able to obtain Fischer’s name and see him picking up packages in his car. .
The last 11 orders for companies across the country were shipped to this address.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was called in to examine the activity spreadsheets drawn up by Canada Post. They also had nine audio recordings of someone with a similar voice calling Canada Post to start new business accounts with different names and addresses and then ask for stamps.
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It was also suspected that in the applications there were similar answers to selected security questions. Several times, the brand of the first car was Datsun, the name of the first girlfriend was Connie, the favorite concert was Blue Rodeo and the favorite book was Think and Grow Rich.
At least three times, the same phone number was used for fake businesses in Regina, Barrie and Winnipeg,
At his trial earlier this year, where Fischer represented himself without a lawyer, Nicholson learned that customers who would buy stamps at a 30 percent discount (and sometimes still owe them money) and employees who were interviewed at Tim Horton cafes for being short. – Help office or web designers to add legitimacy to their businesses.
They also testified members of a nonprofit group who unknowingly appeared in a mailbox at the Canada Post Executive Center for deliveries.
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Finally, the RCMP confiscated Fischer’s computers and electronic devices and found applications from Canada Post and other records. There was evidence of 48 false accounts.
Fischer’s defense was that he was conducting a legitimate centralized business, “doing the work of many” for clients across the country.
“I reject these claims. I have found that the companies involved did not exist or were created by Mr. Fischer,” Nicholson said.
“It makes no reasonable sense for a company located in Abbotsford, BC, or Calgary, Alberta, to (have) more convenience if their product is shipped to Chatham.”
He agreed with Crown deputy attorney Adam Campbell that if Fischer did business with the companies “there would be emails between Mr. Fischer and his company and those entities were on their devices.”
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Investigators found no communications or invoices.
“I found out that Mr. Fischer was the mastermind of a sophisticated and elaborate fraud of the Canada Post Corp.,” Nicholson said.
“To disguise his scheme, Mr. Fischer did his best to create background information to corroborate the existence of counterfeit business… No matter how sophisticated that scheme was, Mr. Fischer was caught and now has condemned state “.
Before setting a sentencing date, Fischer asked the judge how the next phase would affect the appeal process.
Fischer’s sentence is set for August 17.
jsims@postmedia.com
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