No charges after RCMP drop Richmond County expense probe

There will be no criminal investigation and no charges in the Richmond County expense scandal.

Nova Scotia RCMP said in a letter Thursday a review of the case didn’t turn up enough evidence to warrant a criminal investigation into allegations of fraud and breach of trust.

The review followed a stinging ombudsman’s report delivered after allegations of runaway spending and expense account cheating by Richmond County officials were made public prior to the last municipal election.

“Based on this review, we believe the information provided does not meet the threshold of criminal behaviour and the likelihood of obtaining a criminal conviction is extremely low,” wrote Sgt. Scott Stafford in the letter.

Police looked at a forensic audit completed by the accounting firm Grant Thornton, an ombudsman’s report, a report completed by the law firm BoyneClarke LLP, and documents by Yvonne Boudreau, executive assistant for the municipality of the County of Richmond.

They then examined the files and consulted with the Crown attorney from the Public Prosecution Services of Canada.

This investigation began in October, a few days after Ombudsman Bill Smith released a report following his own investigation.

Expenses detailed in the report include airline tickets for spouses of some councillors and the CAO, the claiming of per diems for meals already provided at events and taxi fare to a Houston “gentleman’s club.”

Smith called this a “culture of entitlement” in Richmond County.

He made several recommendations for both the municipality and the provincial municipal affairs department.

This included a review of the municipality’s travel and expense claim policies, and an independent forensic examination of Richmond County financial records from 2010-15.