U.K. men who came to Southwestern Ontario for ‘crime tourism’ deported

Article content

A Sarnia judge had a farewell message for a pair of U.K. men who, apparently unsuccessfully, tried scamming several local homeowners out of money with fraudulent cleaning and repair jobs while on a vacation in Canada.

“Go home,” Justice Paul Kowalyshyn said Thursday in a Sarnia courtroom. “Don’t let the door of the plane hit you on your backsides as you board.”

Article content

Thursday marked the end of a short-lived, bizarre criminal case in Sarnia that saw Jim Wall, 22, from Shirenewton, Wales, and Ned Myers, 21, also from the U.K., convicted of fraud and theft less than two weeks after their arrests. The men, who came to Canada on vacation Dec. 6 and started committing crimes the next day, were escorted out of the Sarnia courthouse in handcuffs by Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers to be deported after spending 10 days in jail.

Sarnia police first said the duo was arrested Dec. 9 after a woman on Franklin Avenue called them about an attempted fraud that involved eavestrough cleaning that wasn’t actually done and a quote for repairs that weren’t needed. The pair had U.K. passports on them and spoke with accents, but investigators had questions about the validity of the documents and police released their mug shots to see if the public could help uncover their true identities.

Court records said their names were Wall and Myers and they were charged in Sarnia with attempted fraud, fraudulently identifying themselves for monetary gain, and obstructing police, along with one additional count of theft in Hamilton. After border officials confirmed that’s who they were, the pair was brought handcuffed into a Sarnia courtroom Thursday, where they pleaded guilty to fraudulently identifying themselves for monetary gain and theft.

Article content

Article content

Their sentence was time-served, deportation, and a ban on returning to Canada.

Assistant Crown attorney Sarah Carmody told the judge they intended to defraud and steal from Canadian citizens and jail was needed to send a message.

“That Canada doesn’t tolerate those who come here for crime tourism,” she said.

With five uniformed border officers sitting in the gallery waiting to take custody of them, both men apologized, but added they were traumatized by this experience and were looking forward to being deported.

“I won’t be going on any more planes ever again,” Myers said.

“I’ll never go on holiday again. I’ll never leave the U.K. as long as I live,” Wall said.

“If you’re happy to be deported I can assure you that that feeling is felt by the citizens of Sarnia,” Kowalyshyn said, calling what they did deplorable.

The court heard after arresting the men on Dec. 9 following the Franklin Avenue woman’s complaint, Sarnia police spoke to several neighbours who said Wall and Myers approached them and tried to solicit work. One person said they posed as City of Sarnia employees and another said they claimed to be from a company called A1 Concrete and gave a quote for $2,500.

Article content

“There were no tools found in the truck that would be able to help facilitate the work in which they were quoting,” Carmody said.

But no one has come forward to police as of Thursday saying they were out any money, she said. The truck they were operating out of was bought legitimately from a man in Hamilton Dec. 7, but they stole his licence plates.

The men, who don’t have steady jobs at home, first arrived in Canada on Dec. 6 at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Myers’ lawyer, Terry Brandon, said they came here on vacation and met someone – she didn’t say who –  who suggested they could make money through this type of scheme.

“Regrettably, they went along with that and it sounded like a good idea at the time,” she said. “It wasn’t.”

“It’s very regrettable,” Wall’s lawyer, Joseph Stoesser, agreed.

As soon as the men had their handcuffs removed and were released from the courtroom’s prisoner’s box, they were whisked into another room by border officers, put back in handcuffs and told they were being deported. While waiting to be loaded onto the elevator, Wall sarcastically told people sitting in the lobby looking at them to take a picture as it lasts longer.

Then, he pointed and smiled enthusiastically and got Myers’ attention as a reporter took their photos on the way out of the courthouse.

tbridge@postmedia.com

Article content