Prison for financial adviser who stole

A man who used his position as a financial adviser to steal $140,000 from a friend will pay for that crime with some hard time.

Donald Ralph Sly, 55, was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding Kenneth Moore, a friend who entrusted Sly with his inheritance money: $139,650.

Moore was born and raised in Saskatchewan but at the time of his father’s death in 2006 he was living abroad. He asked Sly — a former brother-in-law and close friend — to invest it for him.

At that time, Sly held professional designations including Certified Financial Planner, Canadian Life Underwriter and Chartered Financial Consultant. He had previously helped Moore with investments, court heard.

When Moore returned to his home in the Philippines, he left Sly with a blank cheque, because he didn’t know the final value of his inheritance, and instructions to invest the money. Sly transferred the money into his own account. A year later, he emailed documents to Moore showing what he said were cashed cheques as proof the money was invested.

However, Sly had actually used the money to pay off his own personal debts. He then avoided talking to Moore for years.

Moore ultimately complained to the provincial securities regulator, which referred him to the Saskatchewan Life Insurance Council. At a March 2012 hearing, the council issued a lifetime cancellation of Sly’s licence and ordered him to pay a $15,000 fine. The file was also referred to the RCMP.

Defence lawyer Kevin Hill said Sly’s actions were driven by his life situation in 2006 — his marriage was breaking down, one of his children had a life-threatening health crisis and he was in the throes of alcoholism.

He said Sly fully intended to pay the money back, but ended up digging a “deeper and deeper hole.”

The Crown and defence jointly recommended a sentence of two years in prison and a restitution order of $139,650, which Judge Dolores Ebert said was acceptable.

In a victim impact statement, Moore said “no amount of punishment” can help him deal with the feelings of loss and betrayal.

“How a person could put another human being through this ordeal and never make any attempt to rectify the situation is unimaginable to me,” Moore wrote.

“He heard personally about my pain. He knew my sorrow and distress. How does a person learn to trust anyone after this sort of betrayal?”