A Kamloops man has received 20 months of house arrest and will pay $158,000 in restitution after scamming booth exhibitors out of thousands of dollars from phony trade shows he set up within Red Deer and Calgary.
Paul Raymond Pearson, 58, pleaded guilty in Red Deer provincial court on Friday to one charge of fraud over $5,000, 16 charges of fraud under $5,000, and one count of attempted fraud.
Another 67 fraud-related charges were withdrawn. The court also withdrew fraud-related charges against Pearson’s 60-year-old wife, Gloria.
Crown prosecutor Tony Bell said the offences occurred between July 30, 2007 and Feb. 15, 2009, when Pearson began advertising trade shows through the Internet and would then contact businesses by email about their potential interest.
Pearson collected money from 18 victims who gave money towards booth space at one of the fake trade shows he had organized, Bell said.
He collected just over $14,500 from the Rig Expo Trade Show in Red Deer that was held for one day in May 2008 and which drew only 22 attendees.
Pearson then received nearly $14,000 from potential exhibitors of the Lift Haul Expo, which was organized for Red Deer in September of 2008, but was never held. The Big Buck Expo, planned for Red Deer in June 2009, saw Pearson take in nearly $728.
Pearson also picked up almost $12,700 from exhibitors who planned to go to a Go Green Expo in Calgary in April 2009, but the exhibition never happened.
“He utilized the proceeds for his purposes,” said Bell.
The Crown and defence asked for a 20-month conditional sentence to be served at his Kamloops house. Bell said Pearson will only be allowed to leave his house for medical visits and other allowances pre-approved by his supervisor.
A number of other conditions were placed on Pearson, including that he cannot have any electronic devices in his possession. Pearson has served two and a half months in custody since being arrested by Red Deer RCMP in June.
Pearson also handed in a cheque of $158,000, money obtained through a trust fund of his, Bell said. That money will be distributed among various victims of the trade shows, including those for which charges were withdrawn.
Defence lawyer Lorne Goddard said that Pearson had lived with his wife of 30 years on property outside Kamloops, which has since been sold.
Pearson was organizing trade shows and was quite successful at it, but then the market got saturated and activity got slow, Goddard said.
“He started using other people’s money to support his family,” Goddard said.
Pearson, a heavy set man dressed in remand blue coveralls, expressed remorse for defrauding people of their money.
“I am ashamed for what I have done, not only for my victims but to my family. I am sorry,” said Pearson, while bowing his head and nervously clasping his hands.
Judge John Holmes said he had to take into account the sheer amount of money and victims that Pearson had defrauded, but that he was also “managing to pay restitution, which often doesn’t happen in these cases.”
The court will be provided a list of victims by the Red Deer RCMP early next week. Anyone wishing information can call primary RCMP investigator Const. Slavica Doktor at 403-341-2069.
Doktor said a good portion of the victims were local, but some came from the United States as well.
“Three-quarters of what he took in will be paid to his victims, including the Rig Expo people for (which the charges were withdrawn),” said Doktor.
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com