Health problems will not halt sentencing
Health problems or not, the man convicted of defrauding hockey families in Penticton will have to appear in person to hear his sentence, a judge ordered Monday.
Michael Elphicke was convicted following trial in B.C. Supreme Court in 2017 of fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and unauthorized management of a lottery scheme.
On Monday, Justice Austin Cullen dismissed Elphicke’s application to appear via video from Calgary for the sentencing hearing.
Defence counsel James Pennington submitted two letters from Elphicke’s Calgary doctor in which he recommends against travel due to the need for nocturnal dialysis.
There have been multiple delays of sentencing due to Elphicke’s medical issues, including kidney failure and a diabetic ulcer that required an amputation of part of his foot.
Crown counsel Patrick Fullerton said he plans to argue for an actual jail sentence — rather than probation or house arrest — due to the amount of money involved in the fraud, the breach of trust and the public interest in the crimes.
In the course of his arguments, Fullerton explained, he intends to call an official from BC Corrections to testify about health care for inmates.
“Many people who are very ill and are in custody (are) receiving their treatment while in custody,” the prosecutor noted.
The maximum sentence for fraud over $5,000 is 14 years in prison.
In an April 16 letter submitted to the court by the defence Monday, Elphicke’s doctor says “excessive travel may further compromise his foot and could result in leg amputation. Furthermore, travel disrupts Mr. Elphicke’s dialysis treatment.”
Fullerton criticized that evidence, saying it contains “bare assertions” of Elphicke’s doctor and Pennington, who both claimed amputation surgeries on Elphicke’s foot were the result of a lack of dialysis during the three-week trial in 2017.
The concerns expressed by the doctor are in response to general questions of travel and not the specific circumstances of appearing for a sentencing hearing in Penticton, Cullen said in his reasons for denying the application.
“Moreover, there’s no evidence before me whether Mr. Elphicke’s dialysis treatment would be disrupted in that context,” Cullen said.
The lawyers are due back in court May 7 to fix a date for sentencing.
Loren Reagan, who is co-accused with Elphicke, is behind bars awaiting a trial date.
He was arrested in March in Calgary on a Canada-wide warrant issued when he failed to show up for the original trial date.
Elphicke’s trial heard how he and Reagan created the Okanagan Elite Hockey Association in 2010, ostensibly to send teenaged hockey players and their parents on a European tour.
However, most of the funds raised and contributed by parents were used by Reagan and Elphicke for personal expenses, and to start construction of the ill-fated Eckhardt Avenue hockey dorm, according to testimony from a forensic auditor.