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Another cop goes bad
From the February 25, 2002 issue of DM News:
Ex-Mountie Says Job Stress Led to Telemarketing Scam
By Scott Hovanyetz
Prosecutors in Montreal have recommneded 4-1/2 years in jail for a retired officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who worked on an anti-telemarketing task force but ran his own scam on the side.
Craig Richards, 55, a retired Mountie, said his frustration at his superior's failure to grant him stress leave led him to get involved in a bogus lottery scam. Richards has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced Feb. 26. He was charged with fraud, theft, perjury and conspiracy. He had been assigned to a [sic] interagency task force, dubbed Project Colt, involving the FBI, Mounties and Montreal local police.
Richards, a former sergeant, provided names of elderly victims in the United States to three accomplices. He was arrested in December 1999 and resigned afterwards. Richards is accused of having pocketing [sic] $33,000 for himself in the scam. In the scheme, victims received telephone offers of jackpot prizes that they could claim only if they paid taxes in advance. None every [sic] collected their supposed prizes.
A spokesman for Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to comment on the case, saying the agency had a policy against commenting before sentencing. Investigators from the RCMP's interenal affairs unit handled the case. The Canadian Ministry of Justice, which is prosecuting the case, did no return calls for comment.
Ex-Mountie Says Job Stress Led to Telemarketing Scam
By Scott Hovanyetz
Prosecutors in Montreal have recommneded 4-1/2 years in jail for a retired officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who worked on an anti-telemarketing task force but ran his own scam on the side.
Craig Richards, 55, a retired Mountie, said his frustration at his superior's failure to grant him stress leave led him to get involved in a bogus lottery scam. Richards has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced Feb. 26. He was charged with fraud, theft, perjury and conspiracy. He had been assigned to a [sic] interagency task force, dubbed Project Colt, involving the FBI, Mounties and Montreal local police.
Richards, a former sergeant, provided names of elderly victims in the United States to three accomplices. He was arrested in December 1999 and resigned afterwards. Richards is accused of having pocketing [sic] $33,000 for himself in the scam. In the scheme, victims received telephone offers of jackpot prizes that they could claim only if they paid taxes in advance. None every [sic] collected their supposed prizes.
A spokesman for Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to comment on the case, saying the agency had a policy against commenting before sentencing. Investigators from the RCMP's interenal affairs unit handled the case. The Canadian Ministry of Justice, which is prosecuting the case, did no return calls for comment.
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