A Moosomin, SK man was found guilty in Yorkton Court of Queen’s Bench of fraud over $5,000 and forging cheques after a trial centering around his time as an employee of Prairie Livestock Joint Venture.
Gregor Gmerek was found guilty of defrauding the company of over $1.25 million. Gmerek was fired in Sept. 2012 after over $700,000 of payments to himself were discovered. He was charged with defrauding the company by issuing forged cheques to himself and then cancelling the payment in the company’s accounting software.
The defense in the case argued that it wasn’t fraud, but ‘off the books’ payment agreed upon with company owner Kevin Sinclair. In her decision, Justice Janice McMurtry did not find the defence’s argument credible, especially as such an agreement did not appear to benefit the company itself. Evidence used by the defense to support their argument, which included loans to employees to allow them to buy vehicles, would have been advantageous to the company - such as giving salespeople vehicles in order to do their jobs - while the payments to Gmerek did not appear to have much value to anyone other than himself. She also noted that the payments issued to Gmerek did not fit the same pattern as payments issued to other employees.
Another issue in the case was currency speculation that Gmerek did with the company accounts, which he claimed was encouraged by Sinclair, but McMurtry did not believe he was authorized to do this.
McMurtry did note that she did not believe every instance outlined in the indictment was not authorized. For example, she noted that she believed it possible that flowers purchased for Gmerek’s father’s funeral were authorized by the company.
Gmerek will be sentenced on Jul. 9.Â
