SQ officer worked while on sick leave, court told
Accused of running travel agency
• According to investigators, a Quebec police officer accused of fraud worked for four travel agencies while on paid sick leave from the police force.
Nicolas Landry’s trial began Thursday. The Crown argued that Landry lied to doctors about his mental state to remain on leave while working other jobs.
A Sûreté du Québec officer since 2001, Landry has been on paid leave since 2009 after complaining that he was the victim of workplace harassment.
Three doctors evaluated his mental state between 2009 and 2011. Two of them concluded he was suffering from symptoms of depression and anxiety. A third doctor disagreed, saying Landry had a “narcissistic personality” and was fit to work.
In 2014 Landry told one of his doctors that he didn’t get out of the house much and that he lacked the energy to do anything. The doctor recommended he be placed on permanent paid leave. If approved, he would have been placed on leave indefinitely while being paid his full salary until he was ready to retire from the force.
Rémi Lussier, a labour relations adviser for the SQ, testified Thursday, as the first of more than 30 prosecution witnesses who will be called to the stand. Lussier told the court he became suspicious of Landry’s behaviour in 2014 after seeing a photo posted online by Landry’s wife’s travel agency of Landry with a group of travellers in Boston.
An SQ employee called the travel agency pretending to be a wedding planner looking to collaborate on a project. She asked to speak to someone in charge and was told that Landry was the manager.
Increasingly suspicious, Lussier hired a private investigator to stake out Landry’s residence. Investigators observed him working and travelling.
“During the surveillance, we learned that Mr. Landry was very active on behalf of four travel agencies all registered under the same company number,” a letter from an SQ investigator reads.
Lussier testified that Landry’s behaviour didn’t fit with what he told his doctors.
An employee of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) also testified Thursday. He said that in 2013, while on sick leave from the SQ , Landry renewed his IATA card. The card gives travel agents access to discounts on flights and hotels. In his request for renewal, it’s stated that Landry was a fulltime employee of Voyages Mont St-Hilaire and had been working as a travel agent since 2008.
Landry’s partner, Isabelle Malorni, was registered as the owner of Voyages Mont St-Hilaire, but a former employee of the company told the court Thursday that Landry was the one who actually ran the travel agency.
Landry broke down crying in the courtroom for no apparent reason Thursday morning. In a separate case, he is suing the prosecutors who charged him and investigators for over $2 million. He’s arguing that the SQ didn’t conduct their investigation objectively and that investigators’ only goal was to “make him lose his job and to charge him with fraud.”
Because of the number of witnesses involved in the case, the trial will likely go on for weeks.