House arrest for casino tours co-ordinator who falsified invoices

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This article was published 09/03/2024 (594 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE owner of a bus line facing multiple lawsuits over unpaid loans and services has now been sentenced to 14 months house arrest after admitting to falsifying invoices during her previous career with Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries.

Lori Mann, 54, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000.

Court heard Mann held the position of tours and group sales co-ordinator at Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries between 2017 and 2019 when she adjusted computer records to reflect higher passenger numbers for bus tour contractor Tony’s Team Transport, benefiting the company by $52,600.

Mann’s sentence came as the result of a plea bargain that took into account shortcomings with the Crown corporation’s record-keeping, oversight and its own internal investigation, Crown attorney Terry McComb told court.

“The difficulty the Crown had in proving the matter led to some very extensive discussions about how to grapple with what would have been a one- or two-week-long trial,” McComb told King’s Bench Justice Brian Bowman.

McComb said witness credibility would have been an issue, had the case gone to trial.

“Some of our witnesses, to be frank, were not the most credible individuals,” she said. “For example, Tony’s Team Transport actually financially benefited in this instance,” while “financial remuneration to the accused is unquantifiable.”

As tours and group sales co-ordinator, it was Mann’s job to generate bus tours to take patrons to Manitoba casinos.

“To do this, she worked with tour operators to organize tour groups to attend the casinos,” said an agreed statement of facts provided to court.

For tours within Winnipeg, tour operators were paid a flat rate; for tours originating outside the city, operators were paid for each patron taking the bus to a casino.

“In all cases, Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries would rely on internal records to determine the appropriate payment to be paid to tour operators and would not request or require an invoice from the tour operator in order to approve a payment,” said the agreed statement of facts.

Tony’s Team Transport had a contract with Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries allowing it to offer tours both inside and outside of Winnipeg.

In April 2019, it came to light Mann had altered entries in the corporation’s computer system resulting in overpayments to the tour operator.

“In some cases, Mann altered the computer data to show TTT tours had more people on them than they actually did during the trip,” said the agreed statement of facts. Surveillance confirmed the patron counts had been inflated.

In other instances, Mann changed the pickup locations from inside Winnipeg to outside the city, allowing TTC to receive a higher payment.

In some cases where a trip had been cancelled due to weather or a lack of patrons, Mann altered the records to make it appear the trips had taken place.

Mann’s actions led to TTT being overpaid as many as 101 times.

“In all cases, Mann was reckless as to whether these trips occurred and created a risk of deprivation to Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries, with a corresponding benefit to TTT,” said the agreed statement of facts.

In an interview with Winnipeg police, TTT owner Blyth Langdon said Mann told him she controlled the tourism budget for the casinos and could assist TTT in securing bookings. Langdon told police TTT paid Mann a weekly consulting fee and a per-person commission for tours booked through her.

Court heard there was no evidence Mann benefited financially by altering the computer records. In comments to the court, Mann suggested she altered the passenger figures in good faith, believing they accurately reflected the number of people on the buses, but did not “investigate” to confirm they were true.

“I’m very very sorry,” she said.

Defence lawyer Matt Raffey said Mann had been struggling to cope with a number of family and mental-health challenges when in 2017 her job responsibilities expanded to include not just booking tours, but managing the payment of tour operators, as well.

“She describes this as a very difficult time, struggling to keep up with this double duty,” Raffey said. Mann “had a relationship with these tour operators, in some cases for decades, and she really wanted to ensure they weren’t being shorted.”

Mann’s sentence included an order she pay Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries restitution of $40,000, a figure that McComb said represented a portion of the Crown corporation’s insurance deductible.

Mann is the registered owner of Maple Bus Lines, which began round trip service between Thompson and Winnipeg in 2018 after Greyhound Canada terminated its routes in most of Canada.

In December, Maple Bus Lines was hit with three lawsuits seeking $400,000 in damages for unpaid accounting services and loans.

In March 2023, protesters outside Maple’s Sherbrook Street office accused the company of not paying all employees’ wages. Mann said, at the time, employees could take their complaints to the Manitoba Labour Board.

In 2022, Maple Bus Lines Ltd. was sued by both Borebank Holdings Ltd. and Pimicikamak Cree (Cross Lake) Nation.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca