Man facing forgery charges granted bail

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This article was published 23/12/2023 (740 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon man who is facing more than a dozen forgery charges and numerous identity fraud charges was granted bail despite the Crown’s opposition to his release.

Jason Lorne Wenger, 51, made a successful bid for bail in provincial court on Friday. The Crown opposed his release on Wenger’s likelihood to re-offend after he was arrested earlier this month.

The charges against Wenger have not been proven in court and he remains innocent until proven guilty.

The bulk of Wenger’s forgery charges stem from an incident in February of this year.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup read the evidence for the charges in court.

On Feb. 15, a Brandon Police Service officer saw a green Pontiac Sunfire that was allegedly involved in an earlier theft from Canadian Tire. The officer approached the car and saw a man sitting in the front passenger seat, while a woman got into the driver’s seat.

The officer asked the two about the theft from Canadian Tire and they told him they didn’t know anything about a theft. However, the officer noticed a pack of unstamped cigarettes in the centre console of the car.

As the two were being placed under arrest, the woman became upset and began to have a panic attack. She asked the police to grab her anti-anxiety medication from the car. While the officer was searching for the medication, he found more unstamped tobacco in her purse. He also found a bag in the back seat.

The two said they did not know anything about the bag and that they had no problem with the police seizing it.

Once police looked through the bag, they found numerous Indian status cards under two names that were different from the accused man’s name. There were also names on Indian status cards that police have not yet confirmed are real people or not.

Numerous forged government cheques, including Manitoba Public Insurance and federal government cheques, were found inside the bag. A data stick was also found in the bag, which contained digital files of photographs of the man in a format used for ID cards, partially forged cheques that were being created, and logos that had been lifted off the internet, presumably for the purpose of being placed on forged cheques.

The man was released on bail after he was arrested, though at that time as well, the Crown had opposed his release.

The man was brought into custody after he was found playing the VLTs at the Empire Inn despite being subject to a house arrest curfew as part of his release order.

Lonstrup also told the court about other instances of Wenger using fraudulent cheques in the city, offences which he previously pleaded guilty to.

“This is the same pattern of offending over and over,” Lonstrup said, calling the material found in the bag in February evidence of an “industry.”

The Crown attorney said there were no combinations of conditions that justified the 51-year-old’s release back to the community.

Wenger’s defence lawyer, Bob Harrison, said he disagreed with the Crown’s comments about his client. He said his client maintains that he was set up and that the bag of items in the back of the car were not his and that his ID had been stolen a month earlier.

The defence lawyer pointed out that if his client was responsible for the bag, it would have been odd for him to tell police that it was OK for them to search it. Harrison said his client was not a risk to public safety as he is not facing any charges for violence and presented a similar bail plan that Wenger had been released on prior, which was a $2,500 cash bail.

Judge John Combs emphasized that people are entitled to bail if they can present reasonable terms of release. Though he said he had concerns about the veracity of Wenger’s explanation for his charges and that there seemed to be a disturbing pattern of behaviour by Wenger, he decided to grant the man bail.

“The risk to the public is a financial one, and although that’s significant, at this point I’m not prepared to have him remain in custody until these matters are dealt with based on the information I have today,” Combs said.

Wenger’s matters are scheduled for trial in provincial court on Feb. 12.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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