Jail time for local realtor
Cecil Burke concocted fake sales in repeated, elaborate scheme
Cecil Burke of St. John’s faked eight different property deals while he worked as a realtor, in order to get his hands on extra cash.
Between 2009 and 2011, while working with Re/Max Realty Specialists Ltd., Burke forged signatures on bogus sales agreements for real, listed properties. He brought that fake paperwork to a short-term lender and obtained personal loans, based on sales commissions yet to come.
Yet there were no sales. And while Burke was creative in avoiding his personal loan repayments — at one point making up a series of fake emails between himself and a lawyer, to re-set a “closing date” — the clock eventually ran out.
Burke lost his real estate licence in the midst of a police investigation. He was ultimately charged and found guilty of one count of fraud, one count of forgery and one count of uttering forged documents.
On July 21, he was sentenced to a year in jail, followed by two years of probation.
The written decision on sentencing, from Justice William Goodridge, noted the fraudulent activity involved $65,331.12.
Of that (not including interest), $35,822 has yet to be repaid, although the 53-year-old Burke has been ordered to return every penny.
“Mr. Burke’s conduct must be denounced in strong terms,” Goodridge wrote. “To my mind (he) must be incarcerated so that others who are like-minded are deterred from engaging in such criminal activity.”
Bill Stirling, CEO of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Realtors, said it is only the second time he has heard of this kind of allegation associated with local real estate financing. The other case — where police are only investigating a complaint, with no charges laid — is that of Anne Squires and her brokerage Exit Realty on the Rock.
In Burke’s case, Stirling said the association had no complaints before a complaint about Burke was taken directly to the police.
Stirling said before a sale closing, agreements are typically passed to a lawyer, who will hire a search firm to research the conditions of the sale and the property. Sales agreements will then, upon closing, go to the registry of deeds for official record.
Stirling highlighted the forged signatures in Burke’s case, creating what looked like legitimate documentation.
“If somebody’s intent on defrauding somebody, it’s pretty hard to come up with a system that’s foolproof,” he said, suggesting companies providing loans should be careful to be sure sales are legitimate before releasing funds.
“But I don’t know how you can verify they’re actually real,” he said of the pre-close period.
According to court documents, Burke was unemployed at the time of his sentencing. If he tried to re-enter the real estate profession, Stirling said, the association’s professional standards committee would first hold a professional conduct hearing to weigh the move, although the CEO could not see how Burke would be able to first obtain the required real estate licence from Service NL, given his criminal record.