When the fraudster lives at home

By Judi McLeod —— Bio and Archives July 19, 2008

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In the dark world of crime, we attribute fraud to strangers, naturally assuming we are safe from our own relatives. Not locking the door on our blood relatives puts an in-house fraudster in an advantageous environment.

Who can imagine the shock of a father when he discovers his own son has financially ruined him? That was the case of a Toronto father who found out after the event that his own son had bilked him. All loving members of his family thought the alleged fraudster was a pilot. Why wouldn’t they? He left the house each morning dressed like a pilot en route to the airport. But police say the 38-year-old Toronto man was a “typical fraudster”, who brings to mind the Frank Abagnale Jr. protagonist in the Leonardo DiCaprio film Catch Me if You Can. If only the Toronto family could have caught their relative before it was too late! Those closest to him were cheated out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, police allege. The mind boggles at what he must have done to non-relatives. Toronto police announced some 61 charges against him on July 16. More...