Close X
Friday, November 29, 2024
ADVT 
National

Man Who Pledged Millions To B.C. Hockey Team Sentenced On Unrelated Fraud Charge

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 16 Mar, 2018 05:18 PM
    CRANBROOK, B.C. — A man who promised millions of dollars to a junior hockey team in southeastern British Columbia has been placed on six months of probation after pleading guilty to an unrelated fraud charge.
     
    Mike Gould also faced a second charge of using a forged document but it was stayed when he appeared Thursday in Cranbrook provincial court.
     
    In addition to probation, Gould was also fined $4,000 and must complete 60 hours of community service.
     
    Gould was charged last October after he hosted a celebration for the Kimberley Dynamiters and hockey officials following his promise to donate $7.5 million to the team and the Kimberley Minor Hockey Association.
     
    He wrote a check to cover the $8,000 bill for the dinner at a local restaurant but it was returned because of insufficient funds in the account.
     
    Gould has said he won a 2008 jackpot in a EuroMillions lottery but has never disclosed the value and in past interviews he has blamed problems with a bank for preventing the transfer to the hockey team.
     
    Lawyer Morne Coetzee told the court her client took the cheques to provide payment to the restaurant in a moment of panic because he couldn't liquidate some financial assets that had been frozen.
     
    Gould settled the tab with a cash payment six weeks after the event.
     
    "I'm very sorry for my mistakes," Gould told Judge Lynal Doerksen. "I should never have done it in the first place and I'm kicking myself in the ass for it."
     
    Despite the eventual payment to the restaurant, the fraud charge still stood, said Crown counsel Kristian DeJong.
     
    "He's still convicted of it because a fraud is a fraud. You don't undo these things once they're done and that's why he was sentenced," DeJong said outside court.
     
    The Crown had asked for the $4,000 fine, 12 months of probation and 60 hours of community service. The defence argued the appropriate sentence should be a higher fine of up to $15,000 that he was able to pay, but no probation and community service of 20 hours.
     
    Doerksen said co-operation with police, an early guilty plea, and repayment to the restaurant were mitigating factors in sentencing. 

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Landslide Lake Offers Breath-Taking Views On Vancouver Island Hike

    Landslide Lake Offers Breath-Taking Views On Vancouver Island Hike
    Cradled below towering mountains at the centre of Vancouver Island is a lake whose name tells the landscape's history. Landslide Lake caught the face of one the Island's tallest mountains when a magnitude-7.3 earthquake shook it loose in 1946.

    Landslide Lake Offers Breath-Taking Views On Vancouver Island Hike

    New Home, Vehicles Damaged In Targeted Port Coquitlam Shooting

    New Home, Vehicles Damaged In Targeted Port Coquitlam Shooting
    Coquitlam RCMP is making progress in the investigation into a shooting at 8:30 p.m. last night (February 18, 2018) at a Port Coquitlam home.

    New Home, Vehicles Damaged In Targeted Port Coquitlam Shooting

    Harjit Sajjan Asks Justin Trudeau To Meet Punjab CM Who Accused Canada Of Sikh Separatist Sympathies

    Harjit Sajjan Asks Justin Trudeau To Meet Punjab CM Who Accused Canada Of Sikh Separatist Sympathies
    At the request of Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan — who was snubbed by Singh when Sajjan visited India last April — Canada's high commissioner was dispatched to set up a meeting with Singh, Trudeau and Sajjan later this week.

    Harjit Sajjan Asks Justin Trudeau To Meet Punjab CM Who Accused Canada Of Sikh Separatist Sympathies

    PICS: Justin Trudeau Visits India's Famed Taj Mahal With Family In Tow

    PICS: Justin Trudeau Visits India's Famed Taj Mahal With Family In Tow
    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began the first full day of his week-long trip to India by taking a tour of the famed Taj Mahal, followed by a visit to an elephant rescue sanctuary north of Agra.

    PICS: Justin Trudeau Visits India's Famed Taj Mahal With Family In Tow

    SEE PICS: Justin Trudeau's Son Hadrien Trudeau Arrives To Steal The Show On Indian Social Media

    SEE PICS: Justin Trudeau's Son Hadrien Trudeau Arrives To Steal The Show On Indian Social Media
    Hadrien Did His Best To Steal The Show, Making Off Down The Red Carpet With The Flowers Handed To His Father By An Indian Official, Leaving The Rest Of His Family To Manage The Receiving Line.

    SEE PICS: Justin Trudeau's Son Hadrien Trudeau Arrives To Steal The Show On Indian Social Media

    Namaste India: Justin Trudeau Arrives In New Delhi With Family For Week-Long State Visit

    Namaste India: Justin Trudeau Arrives In New Delhi With Family For Week-Long State Visit
    The seven-day Indian state visit is a mix of business meetings, round tables on education, women’s rights and human rights, tours of popular Indian sites and a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    Namaste India: Justin Trudeau Arrives In New Delhi With Family For Week-Long State Visit