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Berry gambled away $20,000, investigator tells murder trial

B.C. Lottery Corp. records show Andrew Berry gambled away more than $20,000 in the year before his two young daughters were killed. On Friday, Brandon Norgaard, an investigation specialist with B.C. Lottery Corp.
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Image from surveillance video shown to jury at Andrew Berry murder trial. It shows Berry at a grocery store with daughters Chloe and Aubrey on Christmas Eve 2017. The next day, the girls were found dead in their father's Oak Bay apartment.

B.C. Lottery Corp. records show Andrew Berry gambled away more than $20,000 in the year before his two young daughters were killed.

On Friday, Brandon Norgaard, an investigation specialist with B.C. Lottery Corp., testified at Berry’s trial for the second-degree murders of his daughters, six-year-old Chloe and four-year-old Aubrey, on Christmas Day 2017.

Norgaard answered questions about an 11-page B.C. Lottery Corp. document showing Berry engaged in significant online gambling between Dec. 28, 2016 and December 2017. The last bet was made on Dec. 10, 2017. After that, there was no money in the account.

Norgaard told prosecutor Patrick Weir that on Jan. 11, 2018, he received a phone call from RCMP Const. Margo Downey asking him for records from Berry’s Playnow gambling account.

Norgaard created a case-management file and locked the account, which had been created under the username Andrew2tricky. A week later, he received a court order requiring him to hand over the lottery records.

Norgaard explained that money is deposited into a Playnow account through credit cards or online banking. The most anyone can have in an account at any one time is $10,000, said Norgaard. The most you can deposit per week is $9,999.

“If you win any amount over $9,999, an email will be sent to your account asking you to withdraw the excess funds,” said Norgaard.

Two bank accounts — an HSBC account at 843 Douglas St. and a Vancity credit union account on Marine Drive in West Vancouver — transferred money in the account, said the investigator. There were also three credit cards associated with the account.

The lottery records show 27 deposits totalling $20,765.71 were made between Dec. 30, 2016 and Oct. 30, 2017. All the deposits were made through electronic banking.

There was one withdrawal from the account of $4.99. The lottery corporation sent a cheque for that amount to Berry on Jan. 5, 2017.

The trial has heard that Oak Bay police went to Berry’s Beach Drive apartment on the afternoon of Dec. 25, 2017, after Berry’s ex-wife, Sarah Cotton, complained that he had not returned the children as part of their custody agreement.

An officer entered the apartment and found the two girls dead on their beds. An injured and naked Berry was in a bathtub filled with water. He has pleaded not guilty.

ldickson@timescolonist.com

 

Surveillance video that was shown to the jury at the murder trial for Andrew Berry. It shows him at a grocery store with daughters Chloe and Aubrey on Christmas Eve 2017. The two girls were found dead at their father's Oak Bay apartment on Christmas Day 2017.