Theft, fraud charges for former RCMP member
A former Stony Plain RCMP officer is facing theft and fraud charges after a probe by the province’s police watchdog.
Aaron Sayler was charged with one count of theft under $5,000, one count of obtaining by false pretences, one count of uttering a forged document and one count of fraud under $5,000. He was arrested Oct. 20.
“The disappointing part about these types of offences is when an officer is charged with these offences, it diminishes public confidence and it leaves the public worried that there are other officers out there doing the same things,” said Susan Hughson, executive director of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which began an investigation Feb. 18.
“It really is an unfair colouring or tainting of the many good women and men that we have in our police services in this province.”
The charges stem from two separate alleged incidents.
ASIRT alleges that on Oct. 27, 2014, the accused made a false police report about a collision involving his car, saying the case was a hit-and-run. They allege he then submitted the report to secure about $1,600 from his insurance company. The second case is alleged to have happened in March 2016 when the accused was involved in the search of a vehicle. During the search, ASIRT alleges, Sayler found an Airsoft pistol and, instead of processing it as evidence, took it for his own use.
“This investigation was the first time Const. Sayler had come to ASIRT’s attention,” she said.
The RCMP said Sayler had been suspended — a standard practice for officers under investigation — and an internal RCMP code of conduct investigation had been launched, before Saylor resigned from the force on Oct. 19, 2016.
He served eight years and 11 months as a Mountie. Prior to that, he was posted in Slave Lake from 2007-11, with the remainder of his service spent with the Stony Plain detachment.
Hughson was hesitant to release more details of the investigation as it remains before the courts.