THUNDER BAY — A court in Thunder Bay has ordered that $32,000 in Canadian currency found in a vehicle stopped for speeding be forfeited to the Crown.
The case dates back to 2017 when a man driving a rented vehicle was pulled over by the OPP near Vermilion Bay.
Police initially arrested him and a female companion for possession of marijuana after finding a small amount of cannabis and drug paraphernalia in vacuum-sealed packages.
Officers also discovered three vacuum-sealed packages containing $32,125 in cash, inside the lining of a suitcase.
The man said the money was his, and that he was travelling to Calgary where he might use it to buy a truck.
The woman, who claimed ownership of the drugs, pleaded guilty later in the year to possession of a controlled substance.
All criminal charges against the man–including possession of property obtained by crime–were withdrawn.
However, the Crown applied to court for forfeiture of the money on the basis there were reasonable grounds to believe it was connected to unlawful activity.
At the time of their arrest, both the man and the woman were unemployed.
The man said he had accumulated the money over a period of time, and had withdrawn it from his bank account between early 2014 and late 2016.
He had two prior convictions; one for driving with more than the legal amount of alcohol in his system, and one for mischief over $5,000.
He was also "an identified party" in several dated incidents in which marijuana use and/or trafficking was suspected.
The man testified he had been employed between 2014 and 2016 and had earned about $100,000 during that period.
He said he lived a modest lifestyle, and shared all expenses with his companion.
Court was told he would regularly withdraw a couple of hundred dollars, mostly in $20 bills, from ATMs, and store the cash in a shoebox or Tupperware container.
Once he had a large enough amount, he would place it in a Ziploc bag.
The man said he preferred to track the growth of his savings this way, adding that having cash in hand enabled him to access his money more quickly, without having to arrange with a bank ahead of time for large purchases such as a vehicle.
This explanation did not convince Superior Court Justice T.J. Nieckarz.
"I do not find the Respondent's explanation as to how he came to possess the funds or the reason why he was carrying it in vacuum-sealed bags in the zipper lining of a suitcase to be credible," she stated in a recent ruling.
Madam Justice Nieckarz noted that the man claimed to have withdrawn a total of $34,387 from his account from 2014 to 2016, and that he paid all his bills with cash.
"He still had $32,125 remaining at the time the currency was seized," she said. "This leaves only $2,262 for payment of his cash paid bills for 2014 through much of 2016."
The judge declared that "it is simply not reasonable to conclude that [he] could have paid the expenses he claims were paid for with cash on the small amount of money consumed."
She also referenced other inconsistencies in his evidence which she said detracted from the credibility of his explanation.
