Developer needs time to pay $500, court told
Frederick fined for fake driver’s licence
A notorious developer who once paid $47.8 million for the Chateau Lacombe hotel will have difficulty paying a $500 fine, court heard Monday.
Kevyn Frederick, 43, was handed the fine Monday morning after pleading guilty to possessing a false driver’s licence under the name Kevyn Clarke. Frederick was not in court, where his lawyer asked for time to pay the fine.
“My client, to my knowledge, doesn’t have a lot of money,” said Rory Ziv, telling Judge Robert Philp that Frederick was now living in a restaurant building.
Between 2008 and 2010, Frederick amassed a heavily mortgaged real estate portfolio approaching $100 million, including the Chateau Lacombe hotel in downtown Edmonton, which he had bought in August 2010. But millions of dollars went missing and mortgage payments stopped in late 2011.
Frederick came to public attention in February 2012 after Leduc fire officials ordered an emergency evacuation of the Bellavera Green condominiums, one of Frederick’s key holdings. “Critical life-safety concerns” had gone unheeded for months, officials said. Construction on a second stage had stalled, leaving fire alarms and sprinklers in the first building disconnected.
In the ensuing legal battles, mortgage companies fought over the proceeds of fire sales of Frederick’s former assets. Condo owners lost their titles when the building was sold last March.
The Traffic Safety Act charge relates to a stop on July 10, 1997, but wasn’t laid for 14 years, after Service Alberta investigators discovered Frederick had allegedly used a fake social insurance card to apply for a driver’s licence under the name Clarke. Frederick still faces two criminal charges for uttering a forged document in connection with the incident. He will next appear in court Jan. 17.