Man facing charges sues for return of $50,000
An Abbotsford man facing 66 drug and firearms charges is suing the B.C. government in a bid to recover more than $50,000 that was seized from him by police.
Last May, Corey Jim Perkins, 28, was arrested after police executed 10 search warrants and found an arsenal of weapons, including semi-automatic pistols, revolvers, a sub-machine gun, semi-automatic rifles and a sawed-off shotgun. Magazines, silencers and ammunition were also seized, along with more than 1,000 pills containing the drug fentanyl and more than $50,000, following an investigation by the Abbotsford police gang and drug unit.
In a petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court, Perkins alleges that following his arrest, without his knowledge and that of his lawyer, the provincial director of civil forfeiture initiated a forfeiture action to claim the money.
The Civil Forfeiture Act allows the director to take forfeiture proceedings without having to begin a lawsuit, but requires that the director give written notice to the person from whom the property was seized and publish notice of the forfeiture.
Perkins, in custody at the Surrey Pre-Trial Centre, claims in his petition that he did not receive proper notice of the forfeiture action concerning the $50,000. “There is no evidence provided to the petitioner that notice was ever published in a newspaper circulating in the area in which the subject property was seized ...” says the petition.
“Accordingly, the director did not comply with the notice requirements of the Act and the money, which is deemed forfeited to the director, was done in a manner that contravened the Act.”
Perkins, who wants the money back so he can fund the defence of his charges, seeks a declaration that the director did not comply with the law and a court order returning the money to him.
It’s not the first legal action taken by Perkins. In November, his lawyers went to court to try to get the funds returned under provisions of the Criminal Code. At that hearing, the director argued that the money had been properly seized and that the provisions of the law were followed. In his ruling in that case, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gordon Weatherill found that “on first blush” the director had followed the statutory process set out in the Act. He advised Perkins to file a petition or a notice of civil claim if he wished to set aside the forfeiture. No response has yet been filed to Perkins’ petition, which contains unproven allegations.