Three former Alberta Energy Savings salespeople have been convicted of signing homeowners to contracts without their consent in three Alberta communities, including Innisfail.
Narek Hakobyan, Shadow Fox Thunderstorm and Kimberly Bernard of Edmonton were fined a total of $6,800 between them and each sentenced to a year’s probation, which includes community service hours.
They each pleaded guilty to a single charge under the Fair Trading Act that requires sales staff to obtain consent from consumers to enrol them in a contract.
Mike Berezowsky, a spokesman for the Department of Service Alberta, which is responsible for consumer protection, said on Tuesday that the accused forged signatures of people in Innisfail, Barrhead and Edmonton when they made telephone calls from Alberta Energy Savings’ call centre between May 31 and July 8.
Berezowsky said Alberta Energy wasn’t aware of the activities and cancelled the contracts.