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Charles Gillen — a man who posed as a bail bondsman collecting money on behalf of an organized crime syndicate scamming senior citizens — will avoid further prison time after being sentenced in St. John’s on Monday.
Chief Justice Raymond Whalen said it was more important for Gillen to be able to work to pay back the victims he stole from, than to be locked up for the balance of his sentence.
Gillen has been ordered to pay back $70,000 to victims in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia within four years.
“Mr. Gillen, you have some road ahead of you. A long road ahead of you,” Whalen told him before Gillen left the courtroom. “You’re still a young man. You can get past this, or you can chase the easy money and we’ll see you again. At that time, it’s going to be a long prison term.”
Gillen — born in Sierra Leone and raised in Winnipeg — flew into St. John’s on Feb. 28, 2023, and immediately went to work collecting money from 13 different senior citizens.
‘I got caught’
Each person had been told their grandchild or other loved one was in legal trouble and needed cash for bail, according to an agreed statement of facts in the case. CBC News spoke to several of the victims in the aftermath of Gillen’s arrest, who said they believed they’d spoken to their actual grandchild over the phone.
Whalen said the scheme required planning, and intimate knowledge of each person’s family situation. In some cases, the scammers even knew the terms of endearment used between grandparent and grandchild.
When the target agreed to pay, they were told it had to be done in person. Gillen was dispatched to collect.
Over the course of three days in St. John’s, Gillen collected $109,000 in cash. The agreed statement of facts said he also collected about $30,000 from victims in Nova Scotia before coming to Newfoundland.
He was arrested after a quick investigation by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. By the time the police caught up to Gillen, he was on board an aircraft minutes from leaving the province for Montreal.
Whalen said evidence showed he texted an unknown recipient with one of his two cell phones, saying: “I got caught.”
Police found more than $60,000 cash in his belongings.
Gillen pleaded guilty last May to 16 offences, including multiple counts of fraud and theft over $5,000.
A 24-year sentence reduced to house arrest
His sentencing hearing on Monday was a roller-coaster from the beginning.
Chief Justice Whalen started the hearing by acknowledging he felt the sentencing submissions by the Crown and defence were lenient for the offences Gillen had committed.
Crown prosecutor Mark James was asking for a sentence between 42 and 45 months, while the defence was seeking a conditional sentence order — essentially house arrest — for 16 to 34 months.
Whalen said the appropriate sentence for each of Gillen’s offences would be 18 months served consecutively, for a total of 24 years.
“The sentence for this type of offence must properly denounce the crime, and deter others from taking the risk of engaging in these scams of elderly citizens, or devising new ones,” Whalen said.
However, Whalen said Gillen’s case also highlights a key sentencing principle in Canadian law — the principle of totality. That allows judges to look at the entire sentence of all combined charges and reduce it if that total would be unduly harsh.
“Given the considerable length of the combined sentence, Mr. Gillen’s youth and the absence of a criminal record, and the crushing impact that such a sentence would have on his prospect for rehabilitation, I find that this is an appropriate case to reduce the global sentence.”
Whalen shrank the 24-year sentence down to four years, and continued subtracting from there.
There was 295 days of time already served at the notorious Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s, to be multiplied by the standard 1.5 for remand credit.
He also granted a defence application to further reduce the sentence due to the conditions of the jail, and the alleged racism Gillen experienced by inmates and guards while incarcerated. Whalen subtracted another 200 days for those reasons.
“The severely deteriorated conditions of Her Majesty’s Penitentiary certain present unusually harsh conditions for inmates,” Whalen said. “Particularly in [the] east wing where Mr. Gillen was housed.”
There was also an application to further reduce Gillen’s sentence because he had adhered to strict conditions while out on bail. Whalen granted another 100 days for that.
Gillen was left with 728 days on his sentence. Anything less than 730 days gives the judge the ability to consider a conditional sentence order to be served in the community instead of incarceration.
Whalen’s decision came down to the money owed to those 13 senior citizens, ranging in age from 70 to 88.
“Repaying the victims the money stolen from them is fundamental to sentencing,” Whalen said. “I find that restitution in these circumstances is essential, where reparations must be made for the harm done.”
Charles Gillen played a crucial role in scamming senior citizens in Newfoundland and Labrador out of thousands of dollars. In a St. John’s courtroom on Monday, he avoided a prison sentence. The CBC’s Ryan Cooke reports.
Those reparations would be impossible if Gillen was in jail, Whalen said.
Gillen’s head sunk to his knees when Whalen said it would be more beneficial for him to serve his sentence at home in Winnipeg, than to go back to jail again.
He has to pay a total of $70,455.10 to his victims within the next four years.
He has to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, stay in Manitoba unless granted permission to leave, reside with his grandparents and be home in time for curfew.
Gillen stood in one place, visibly stunned as the court proceeding came to a close. He then walked out of the courtroom.
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