Con artist sent back to prison

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/05/2009 (6067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG – The con artist formerly known as Klaus Burlakow is back behind bars.

The former city bureaucrat who went on a wild bank robbery spree in Winnipeg and Vancouver — supposedly to pay off underworld henchman after he lost their money — is in Stony Mountain Institution on a parole violation following a new series of questionable financial transactions, sources say.

The Winnipegger — who legally changed his name to Timothy Collins — was returned to the federal pen last week after a series of court decisions left him on the hook for more than $12,000, according to court documents.

Collins lost three recent civil court cases after failing to show up in court and being found in default. He was having his wages garnished while employed as a fundraising manager and consultant for the Mennonite Central Committee of Manitoba.

The two biggest judgments involve $9,500 promissory notes given to Collins by a woman named Rosie Neufeld in early 2008. She filed an affidavit last summer, saying Collins had refused numerous attempts to repay the money with interest. The total money owed by Collins was set by the court at $10,830.

Collins was also liable for $949.45 to CDC Installation Systems after writing them a cheque for work done on his home windows — only to have it bounce because of insufficient funds, according to documents.

The court filings also reveal Collins was fired from his job with the MCC on April 9. Board member Russell Loewen provided no further details in a letter filed with the court but asked to have all future garnishment orders diverted from his organization.

Collins has not been charged with any new crimes, but under National Parole Board rules an offender’s release can be revoked if there is a pattern of behaviour not in keeping with the terms of his release.

Collins was unavailable for comment Tuesday, while his lawyer, Michael Wasylin, declined to comment.

His return to prison comes as a woman from Kentucky claims Collins made contact with her online, proposed marriage and suggested they buy a house together in Atlanta.

With a criminal record and parole conditions, he was not allowed to travel across the border to the United States.

The 50-year-old woman said Collins flew her to Canada to meet him several times in Toronto, twice in Ottawa and once in Halifax.

It’s unclear if he had advised his parole officer he would be travelling.

The woman met Collins online in August 2007 when he chatted with her on a popular social networking site, she said. In subsequent telephone conversations, Collins spoke with an Irish accent — similar to what he did almost seven years ago when he contacted a Seattle woman online and later, in person, at that time using the name Patrick.

The woman from Kentucky, who has not seen Collins in several months, even went so far as to pay for a home inspection on a house they were supposed to purchase in Atlanta.

"I am feeling broken-hearted, stupid and very much taken advantage of," she said. "I am struggling with the feeling I have for a man that apparently didn’t exist in the first place.

The woman contacted the Free Press because she was concerned about Collins’ whereabouts and his safety after he halted communication with her.

"My children are struggling also with how he did this to me … and them. And even though they aren’t saying it, I’m sure they are wondering how I could have missed something as big as this," the woman said.

Collins made headlines in February 2003 when he was caught after a high-speed police chase after a River Heights bank was robbed at gunpoint. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in February 2004 after pleading guilty to seven bank robberies. Six of the crimes took place in Winnipeg, the other in Vancouver.

During his crime rampage, he stole about $33,000, using plastic BB guns and air pistols to threaten tellers.

He was also wanted in the U.S. for robbery charges but American authorities withdrew plans to seek his extradition in February 2006 to face charges for bank robbery in the state of Washington. He was charged with robbing an Olympia-area bank Jan. 13, 2003, just a month before he was arrested here. He was also charged with the Jan. 28, 2003 robbery of a bank in Lynnwood, Wash.

The parole board described his case as a "story of intrigue."

www.mikeoncrime.com bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

In his own words

"One especially intolerant neighbour never missed a chance to make loud jibes every time she saw me on the street. Once, seeing me lock my vehicle, she shrieked that I needn’t worry about locking the van as I was ‘the only thief on the street.’"

Writing as Tim Collins in an Aug. 22, 2008 article in the Free Press, on how some of his neighbours treated him after his release from prison.

 

"It’s an honour to work for people who care so much about other people. I’m thrilled to be part of a project that will fundamentally add to the quality of life in Elmwood," Collins told the Free Press Aug. 20, 2008, regarding how he had been hired as fundraising manager and consultant for the Mennonite Central Committee.

 

"There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about what I did and how inexcusable it was," Burlakow said in an interview with the Free Press in October 2003.