Belbas seeks to strike past guilty pleas

THUNDER BAY —  A Thunder Bay man previously convicted of fraud and who is also facing several other related charges for which he has yet to be sentenced for is seeking to have previously entered guilty pleas struck.

On Monday, Sept. 28, in an assignment courtroom at the Thunder Bay Courthouse, defence counsel Karen Scullion for Richard Belbas told the court via videoconference she would be applying to request past guilty pleas made by Belbas to be struck.

Earlier this month, Scullion and Crown attorney Andrew Sadler met before Justice Danial Newton to provide the court with an update in the dated case.

At the Sept. 8 hearing, Scullion who was not yet fully retained by Belbas told the court she had concerns with respect to the pleas made by Belbas on June 8, 2018, and whether or not Belbas had been given a proper plea inquiry on the record by his previous counsel Christopher Watkins.  A plea inquiry is conducted by a judge prior to an accused person entering a plea in court to ensure their plea is voluntary and informed.

Newton granted to adjourn the matter from Sept. 8 to Monday in order to give Scullion enough time to review court documents to determine whether or not a plea inquiry was conducted on the record for Belbas by his previous counsel.

“Mr. Belbas entered these pleas under Mr. Watkins and out of an abundance of caution I did see if I could get any evidence of any plea instruction and none were available and apparently (Belbas) didn’t sign anything,” Scullion said Monday. “I also had ordered and looked at the transcripts from the time the pleas were entered and there is no plea inquiry on the record.”

It was not said on the record which pleas counsel plans to request to have stricken.

Belbas was scheduled for a sentencing hearing in March for numerous fraud charges dating back to 2017 but the hearing was adjourned as Belbas was in the process of hiring a new lawyer. He was set to return to court in May for sentencing but the hearing was pushed back once again due to COVID-19.

He is scheduled to return to court in late October.