Former officer gets absolute discharge on fraud charge

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This article was published 18/01/2023 (1230 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A now-former Winnipeg police officer who was charged with fraud over $5,000 after receiving long-term disability payments while running a private business was granted an absolute discharge Monday.

Elmer Hanson, a 56-year-old Winnipeg Police Service constable from 1988 to 2016, was charged in July 2020 following an Independent Investigation Unit probe.

The provincial watchdog agency started investigating Hanson in February 2019, after Manulife Financial informed police it believed the officer was operating a private business — even though he hadn’t told Manulife, as required by the contract he signed to collect disability.

Provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie’s ruling Monday means that although Hanson was found guilty, he has not been criminally convicted and he will not have a criminal record. He had pleaded guilty to the offence prior to Monday’s hearing.

Court heard Monday that Hanson has repaid the insurance firm the full amount of disability payments he received from July 2014 to September 2018 — $142,958.82.

Manulife conducted its own investigation after being alerted to potential fraud by the Winnipeg Police Association — the union had helped him apply for disability.

The firm disclosed in a brief to the IIU that Hanson had fallen from a ladder at his home on April 26, 2014 and struck his head on the ground. He was off work and applied for long-term disability that August, with medical records confirming he was suffering from post-concussive syndrome, which made it impossible to use a firearm, and using a computer would exacerbate his symptoms.

The union told Manulife that Hanson had been involved with a private business called Chef Pilots and Truck Services since 2013, performing traffic escort services, Crown attorney Christopher Vanderhooft said.

Several employees were current or former police, and they were working for Hanson and his business, moving large buildings and other large loads across the country and sometimes into the U.S., Vanderhooft said.

Vanderhooft noted that Hanson had legitimately been injured, so was owed disability benefits — and that if he had reported his private business, or later fessed up to an insurance investigator who called him, the matter wouldn’t have become criminal.

“Hanson was entitled to these benefits, this is not a fraud alleging a breach of trust where he was illegally, or somehow obtaining the funds from his employer, that he wasn’t entitled to,” said Vanderhooft.

Court heard that he was mistakenly under the impression that because he was not receiving a salaried income from the business, he thought he didn’t have to report it to the insurance company.

Hanson told an insurance investigator he was only helping out a friend by answering phones, when in fact he was running the business, which he had previously started with a friend but took over in full, Vanderhooft said.

His defence lawyer, Crystal Antila, noted that if he had reported the business, Manulife could have allowed him to keep the benefits, reduced their amounts or axed them entirely. She said the repayment has been a hardship for him, as he and his wife have two adult children who live at home, including one with Down syndrome who will require support for life.

Vanderhooft had sought a suspended sentence, while Antila sought the discharge Harvie granted.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera