House arrest for defrauding EIA out of $109K

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This article was published 29/08/2022 (1273 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 52-year-old Brandon resident was sentenced to one year of house arrest last week after committing multiple counts of fraud under $5,000 between 2011 and 2017.

Ivan Roulette appeared before Judge Donovan Dvorak in court on Aug. 22, with Crown attorney Jonathan Mays and defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn already finalizing a joint recommendation for sentencing.

While the lawyers didn’t get into the specifics of Roulette’s case, a look at the pre-sentence report reveals that the 52-year-old and his partner fraudulently obtained $109,444 from Manitoba’s Employment and Income Assistance (EIA) program over a six-year period starting in October 2011.

Throughout this time, Roulette and his partner consistently applied and reapplied for EIA benefits under false pretenses, telling government workers that, for example, they were unemployed and had no steady source of income.

However, EIA became suspicious of Roulette’s true employment status in late October 2017, when he sent them a letter that stated he didn’t know that working on reserve and in the City of Winnipeg “was gonna cause issues” with his account.

Because of this discrepancy, EIA workers suspended the couple’s benefits and contacted the Canada Revenue Agency to cross-reference the pair’s reported income.

EIA’s fraud department later conducted an official review of the couple’s finances in 2019 and determined that there had been an overpayment of $109,444.

After bringing this information to the Brandon Police Service, the couple was finally arrested on Dec. 5, 2019, although the charges against Roulette’s partner were later stayed.

On Aug. 22, Synyshyn told the court that the severity of his client’s actions would usually result in jail time, especially given the large amount of money involved and the fact that this kind of fraud case does impact the broader public.

“Obviously CRA has deep pockets and they’re not going to be wanting,” Synyshyn said. “But obviously the acknowledgment that we aren’t honest on our taxes, that we aren’t honest on our financial situation … our public service system suffers and the rest of us are sort of left holding the bag.”

However, Synyshyn told Dvorak that he believes a one-year conditional sentence order is an appropriate punishment for Roulette, given his negligent criminal record, genuine display of remorse through an early guilty plea and steady working status that makes him unlikely to re-offend.

Mays concurred with his colleague, telling the judge that the Crown has confidence that Roulette will abide by this period of house arrest.

Dvorak ultimately accepted this joint recommendation, telling Roulette that he must reside at his residence for a year outside of attending work, medical appointments or court-approval family functions like a wedding or funeral.

Dvorak also sentenced Roulette to 18 months of supervised probation after this period of house arrest ends, where he must complete 100 hours of community service and regularly report to his probation supervisor.

Outside of being punished by the court, Synyshyn revealed that his client is in the process of paying back all the money he defrauded from EIA and CRA.

Roulette declined to make any public statement before or after Judge Dvorak’s ruling.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson