Adellene Balgobin was charged with theft over $5,000 and breach of trust. His co-defendant, Toronto Police Service Constable Rob Konashewych, was only charged with theft over $5,000.
The amount of the fraud is assessed at $830,000.
The jury only took half a day yesterday and a few hours Friday morning to return the three guilty verdicts.
The Crown accused Constable Konashewych of conspiring with Ms. Balgobin, who was administering Heinz Sommerfeld’s curatorship case, and of creating a false will dating from 2006 to prove he was the sole heir to the estate. septuagenarian.
The Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee of Ontario is located in this building in downtown Toronto. (File photo)
Photo: Screenshot – Google Map
Heinz Sommerfeld died of Alzheimer’s in 2017, at the age of 77, in a long-term care residence in Toronto.
Due to his mental health, he could not administer his fortune, which had been entrusted since 2008 to the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee of Ontario.
The curatorship is responsible for administering the money of Ontarians who are unable to do so or who die without family or heirs.
The trial showed that the cop’s ex-fiancée, Candice Dixon, spilled the beans to police after accidentally opening his mail, which told him he had inherited a large sum of money.
Candice Dixon is Robert Konashewych’s ex-fiancée and one of the Crown witnesses in this trial. (File photo)
Photo: Facebook/Candice Dixon
Robert Konashewych had refused to testify at his trial unlike his co-defendant.
Ms Balgobin’s testimony had shown that her lover had apparently met Mr Sommerfeld when he was 22 when he worked as a security guard at the Woodbine Racecourse in the metropolis.
According to Madame Balgobin, the old man had promised his lover to leave him his fortune, because he had no family.
She implied that Mr. Konashewych had explained that his client had a will to prove it.
Constable Konashewych is suspended from the Toronto Police Service with pay while Ms. Balgobin has not worked at public trusteeship since early 2019. (File photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Andy Hincenbergs
Ms. Balgobin’s defense was based on a chance meeting between the guardianship employee and the police officer in 2014 when she was not yet the file manager of the deceased in this case.
Ms Balgobin claimed she learned in 2017 of the death of Mr Sommerfeld whose finances she now managed.
The 36-year-old woman then realizes that she has been unknowingly dating for three years the heir of one of her clients, who is registered under the pseudonym Bob Kay in the curatorship documents.
The trial showed that the employees of the public curatorship are subject to very strict rules in terms of confidentiality and privacy. (File photo)
Photo: iStock/Zolnierek
For the Crown, this story did not hold water, because their chance meeting is unlikely and the coincidences are too incredible to be true.
She accused Ms. Balgobin in fact of having sought to protect the identity of the 39-year-old agent in the event that their relationship was exposed because of the conflict of interest in which she had placed herself.
The Crown claimed that Ms. Balgobin had signed the validation deed that authenticated Mr. Konashewych as the official heir of Mr. Sommerfeld when she did not have the authority to do so.
Ms. Balgobin had vigorously denied the Crown’s allegations at the bar of the trial.
Adellene Balgobin and Robert Konashewych will have to return to court at an undetermined date for their sentencing hearing.
They face a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
With such a verdict, Constable Konashewych is now nominally suspended, but this time without pay. His employer has yet to file any professional misconduct charges against him.
