A Vancouver Island man with a record of criminal fraud has been sentenced to nine months in jail after pleading guilty Thursday to breaching B.C. Securities Commission orders aimed at keeping him out of capital markets.
Raymond Patrick Shaw, 50, was also ordered by Judge Carmen Rogers to pay restitution totalling $70,300 to three British Columbia residents.
Shaw pleaded guilty in B.C. provincial court in Victoria to two counts of breaching B.C. Securities Commission orders, between May 2011 and August 2012. Those orders had been imposed by the Securities Commission following earlier offences.
Shaw also pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully trading in securities.
He is to pay $48,200 in restitution to James Hardy of Victoria. He was also ordered to pay Lorne Martens of Vanderhoof $17,100, and Kelly Poirier of Parksville $5,000.
Crown counsel Matthew Scott said that Hardy had known Shaw since 2001. Shaw promised to double Hardy’s money and accepted $48,000 in cash.
Martens, who met Shaw in 2003, used his credit card to invest in a scheme, purporting to involve millions of dollars in offshore funds that were being held up by the government, Scott said. Marten’s payments were made on the promise of investment returns coming in. “[Martens] had a great deal of faith in Shaw,” Scott said.
Poirier was cutting Shaw’s lawn in Parksville when Shaw told him about a real estate opportunity involving buying and fixing up houses. Shaw also promised to double Poirier’s money, Scott said. Poirier met Shaw in 2010.
None of the investors received money, court was told.
In August 2007, a B.C. Securities Commission panel ordered Shaw out of the province’s capital markets. Shaw and another man were convicted in March 2007 of fraud and theft for their roles in an investment scheme that led to at least $1.8 million in investor losses, the commission said that year.
Shaw was sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court to a conditional sentence of two years less a day following by three years probation.
The Securities Commission then banned Shaw, except in limited circumstances, from engaging in investor relations, acting as a director or officer, or trading in securities for 20 years.
Defence counsel Tim Russell said Shaw is recovering from a kidney transplant, takes 25 pills a day and his health is closely monitored.
Shaw has been living with his 90-year-old mother and they help take care of each other, his lawyer said.
Shaw is no longer participating in investing activities, Russell said. His parole officer requires regular financial monitoring of his bank accounts.
Judge Rogers said it can be “devastating” to people lose money in this way, she said.
Scott and Russell made a joint submission that Shaw be sentenced to nine months. Rogers agreed. The sentences are to be served consecutively.
