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The Crown Law Office has decided not to appeal a judge’s decision to throw out a high-profile fraud case that took more than four years to bring to trial.
Last month, Ontario Superior court Justice Kevin Phillips ruled that the case took much too long — 51 months — to reach the trial stage.
“Delays caused by an under-resourced justice system are not the fault of the accused,” Phillips said in dismissing the case against Kevin Bishop, 52, on the eve of his trial. The Ottawa man had been charged with fraud over $5,000 in connection with an alleged romance and renovation scam.
On Friday, the complainant in the case, Julie MacArthur, was given official notice that the judge’s decision will not be appealed.
“I worked hard on this case and it’s a shame,” said MacArthur, who has won a $100,000 civil judgment against Bishop but has never been able to collect a penny.
“I have no idea how he slipped through the cracks,” she said.
Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada established new rules for an accused person’s right to be tried within a reasonable time: The high court said Superior Court cases must be concluded within 30 months of charges being laid.
That ruling led a judge to stay a first-degree murder case in Ottawa in November.
MacArthur originally launched the case against Bishop as a private prosecution after being unable to obtain help from the Ottawa police. She put together a binder of evidence and found two other women who alleged they lost money in renovation scams orchestrated by Bishop.
The case was reviewed and carried forward by the Ottawa Crown Attorney’s Office in 2012, but a long series of delays ultimately scuttled it.
“It is to your credit that you stuck with this as long as you did, and I regret very much that the prosecution will never be seen through to the end,” Ottawa Crown Attorney Matthew Geigen-Miller wrote in an email to MacArthur, which announced the end of the case.
Bishop, an Ottawa contractor with more than two dozen fraud convictions on his criminal record, intended to plead not guilty at trial.
MacArthur met Bishop through the Plenty of Fish dating website in 2009. Early in their relationship, when Bishop told her his contracting business was in financial difficulty, she loaned him $20,000. They later decided to renovate and flip a house together. MacArthur paid for the house and Bishop was supposed to do the renovation work; they were then to split the profits when the house was sold.
But MacArthur hemorrhaged money during the renovation and Bishop pocketed cash that was supposed to go to suppliers. The renovations were never finished, and the relationship broke down for good when MacArthur discovered that Bishop had been using her credit card and withdrawing money from her personal bank account.
He called it “borrowing.” Bishop has previously told the Citizen he acted in good faith in his romantic and business affairs.
查看原文...
Last month, Ontario Superior court Justice Kevin Phillips ruled that the case took much too long — 51 months — to reach the trial stage.
“Delays caused by an under-resourced justice system are not the fault of the accused,” Phillips said in dismissing the case against Kevin Bishop, 52, on the eve of his trial. The Ottawa man had been charged with fraud over $5,000 in connection with an alleged romance and renovation scam.
On Friday, the complainant in the case, Julie MacArthur, was given official notice that the judge’s decision will not be appealed.
“I worked hard on this case and it’s a shame,” said MacArthur, who has won a $100,000 civil judgment against Bishop but has never been able to collect a penny.
“I have no idea how he slipped through the cracks,” she said.
Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada established new rules for an accused person’s right to be tried within a reasonable time: The high court said Superior Court cases must be concluded within 30 months of charges being laid.
That ruling led a judge to stay a first-degree murder case in Ottawa in November.
MacArthur originally launched the case against Bishop as a private prosecution after being unable to obtain help from the Ottawa police. She put together a binder of evidence and found two other women who alleged they lost money in renovation scams orchestrated by Bishop.
The case was reviewed and carried forward by the Ottawa Crown Attorney’s Office in 2012, but a long series of delays ultimately scuttled it.
“It is to your credit that you stuck with this as long as you did, and I regret very much that the prosecution will never be seen through to the end,” Ottawa Crown Attorney Matthew Geigen-Miller wrote in an email to MacArthur, which announced the end of the case.
Bishop, an Ottawa contractor with more than two dozen fraud convictions on his criminal record, intended to plead not guilty at trial.
MacArthur met Bishop through the Plenty of Fish dating website in 2009. Early in their relationship, when Bishop told her his contracting business was in financial difficulty, she loaned him $20,000. They later decided to renovate and flip a house together. MacArthur paid for the house and Bishop was supposed to do the renovation work; they were then to split the profits when the house was sold.
But MacArthur hemorrhaged money during the renovation and Bishop pocketed cash that was supposed to go to suppliers. The renovations were never finished, and the relationship broke down for good when MacArthur discovered that Bishop had been using her credit card and withdrawing money from her personal bank account.
He called it “borrowing.” Bishop has previously told the Citizen he acted in good faith in his romantic and business affairs.
查看原文...
