Judge lets accused withdraw guilty pleas

A judge has allowed former Vancouver real estate developer Tarsem Singh Gill to withdraw his guilty pleas in connection with a $40-million mortgage fraud.

In a ruling Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Terry Schultes said the possibility of a “miscarriage of justice” loomed large if he denied Gill’s application to withdraw his pleas to two counts of fraud.

It’s the latest twist in one of B.C.’s longest-running criminal cases.

Gill has had five lawyers and five trial dates since the charges were laid against him in 2008. That followed a six-year police investigation into a fraudulent scheme involving dozens of home purchases dating back more than 12 years.

Kevin McCullough, Gill’s latest lawyer, argued that his client was depressed and anxious at the time he entered the guilty pleas last May.

He said Gill was not admitting to the essential elements of the offences to which he had pleaded guilty.

Prosecutor Kevin Gillett argued that Gill’s pleas were a straightforward acceptance of the basic elements of the offence, put in a simple form.

But the judge said the evidence of Gill’s wife and friends about his depression at the time of the pleas was unchallenged.

His claim not to have admitted the necessary intent for fraud at the time of his guilty pleas was circumstantially supported and there was a “meaningful concern” about the validity of the pleas, the judge concluded.

A trial date will be set March 7. Gill’s co-accused, former lawyer Martin Wirick, pleaded guilty in June 2009 and received a seven-year jail term.

The scam involved the biggest legal fraud in Canadian history.