Former BPS bylaw officer gets conditional discharge for fraud

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/10/2024 (415 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former animal control bylaw officer with the Brandon Police Service who pleaded guilty to fraud will have to do 50 hours of community service but won’t have the offence appear on his criminal record after receiving a conditional discharge.

In March of 2023, Neil Terence Jordan, 58, was charged with five counts of fraud under $5,000 and five counts of breach of trust by an official after a BPS criminal investigation found that fees collected for the surrender of animals were pocketed by Jordan instead of being deposited with the pound.

Earlier this year, Jordan pleaded guilty to one count of fraud under $5,000 and the Crown stayed the remainder of the charges. The Crown argued Jordan should receive a suspended sentence (which results in a criminal record but no incarceration), while the defence argued for a conditional discharge (a finding of guilt is made, but no conviction is recorded).

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup read the evidence for the charges to the court at Jordan’s sentencing hearing in Brandon provincial court back in May.

Over a period of three months in 2022, while in uniform and on duty as an animal control officer, Jordan collected the $50 surrender fee from animal owners in Brandon who called him seeking to surrender their cat or dog to the pound.

In three cases, Jordan pocketed a total of $150 from Brandon residents before discarding the animals.

Lonstrup said that the investigation revealed that from the tracking on the bylaw vehicle Jordan used, he made multiple trips to the landfill, though no bodies of the animals were found. Lonstrup asserted that the animals did not make it to the pound.

Investigators first became suspicious after a box of kittens was found on the corner of 23rd Street and Victoria Avenue, leading them to look at animal control records. They found discrepancies between what Jordan had logged into records and reports taken by the pound.

In the case of the three victims, records showed that no surrender fee was taken, just that a dog was picked up and taken to the pound. In another case, the report doesn’t mention the fee collected. And lastly, Jordan recorded that a woman had hung up on him after hearing the surrender fee requirement, but he picked up her cat anyway.

What actually happened, Lonstrup said, was that a $50 bill was picked up by Jordan along with the cat. He also told the woman to not tell anyone about the call because of a supposed “rabies health hazard.”

“Really at the end of the day, it comes down to this: ordinary citizenry cannot go up to people on the street and shake them down for $50,” Lonstrup said. “You’ve got a badge and a uniform and a public office, a lot of people don’t ask twice. That’s what happened here, and that needs to be punished.”

The Crown attorney said that a guilty plea sparing the court and witnesses of a complex trial, the low amount of money stolen, and Jordan’s mental health issues contributed towards the prosecutor’s argument for a suspended sentence, which would leave the 58-year-old with a criminal record entry.

“Conditional discharges are not the remedy for someone who’s breaching any kind of trust position, and in particular, someone that’s acting under the guise of law enforcement,” Lonstrup said. “I cannot see how that sends a positive or appropriate message to the community at large.”

Jordan’s lawyer, Richard Wolson, told the court that the animals — two dogs and a cat — were taken to the pound, not the landfill as Lonstrup had suggested.

The Winnipeg-based defence lawyer focused his submissions on case law he filed with the court where people in positions of power, like police officers, were given conditional discharges for breach of trust situations.

He also detailed the background of his client, who suffers from a variety of mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder which he attributes to his tour of duty in the Middle East when he served with the Canadian Armed Forces.

Wolson said that since being honourably discharged from the military seven years ago, Jordan has worked a variety of jobs, including being a long-distance trucker, before joining the city as an animal control officer. Since leaving his bylaw position in 2023 due to the charges, he has held two jobs, but hopes to return to being a truck driver, which would require him to cross the U.S border, the lawyer said.

He argued that a criminal conviction would make it difficult for Jordan to cross the border, which is important for him as he visits family and military friends in the U.S. Wolson did mention, however, that Jordan has been able to cross the border despite having a shoplifting conviction from when he was 19.

Jordan apologized to the court for his actions and said that he doesn’t know why he did what he did.

Judge Patrick Sullivan accepted Wolson’s statement that the animals had been taken to the pound and noted that Jordan’s mental health issues may have played a role in his offending.

“Though it may be a close call, I am of the view that it is not contrary to the public interest that I am prepared to impose a conditional discharge,” the judge said.

He ordered that Jordan complete 50 hours of community service as conditions of the one-year discharge and that he not be involved in handling money as part of any volunteering capacity. He was also ordered to pay $150 in restitution to the pound.

Brandon police service confirmed that Jordan is no longer employed with them.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

» X: @geena_mortfield