Judge reserves sentence for former MLA
Posted Jul 5, 2012 04:49:10 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It will be another three weeks before a former Nova Scotia politician hears whether he will serve jail time for defrauding the provincial government.
A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge has reserved his decision in the sentencing of a Richard Hurlburt who pleaded guilty in the province’s spending scandal. Judge David MacAdam is scheduled to hand down his sentence on July 27 in Yarmouth.
“Why should it deserve a jail term when his actions, subsequent to the events, have been exemplary,” Hurlburt’s lawyer Stan MacDonald told the Canadian Press outside the court. “He’s done all that he can to make up for what’s happened. So he doesn’t have to go to jail.”
The defence is calling for a nine-month conditional sentence, noting that his client has shown remorse and reimbursed the Speaker’s Office.
The former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister pleaded guilty in April to fraud and breach of trust. According to an agreed statement of facts presented Thursday, Hurlburt committed fraud totaling just over $25,000 between December 2006 and December 2008.
The court heard he submitted four claims for expenses that were not incurred in his constituency work including one for a $9,000 honda generator that was not purchased.
Crown lawyer Andrew Macdonald says Hurlburt committed a significant breach of the public’s trust. He’s recommending a sentence of between nine and 12 months followed by a period of probation, similar to what former Liberal MLA Dave Wilson was sentenced to for his involvement in the scandal.
“Despite the fact that there was a different dollar amount, I’m saying we should be treating the cases similarly,” said Macdonald.
Wilson was sentenced to nine months in jail for defrauding the public purse of $61,000. The court took into account that his actions were driven by a gambling addiction.
Hurlburt is the second politician to plead guilty in the spending scandal.
Current Independent Member of the Legislative Assembly Trevor Zinck was also charged following an Auditor General’s report and subsequent RCMP investigation into MLA expenses. His case has just finished its preliminary inquiry.
Former Liberal MLA Russell MacKinnon also faces charges in the scandal.
