Whitby therapist acquitted of fraud
Complaints against man called ‘sour grapes’
The Whitby therapist embroiled in years of criminal and professional investigations for allegedly posing as a qualified doctor while providing counselling and court-ordered child custody assessments has been acquitted of fraud charges.
Gregory Carter was found not guilty of three charges of fraud under $5,000 in Oshawa court Friday morning. He was accused of deceiving patients into thinking he was a psychologist, compromising their child custody battles and causing financial loss.
Carter is a psychological associate, a step below a psychologist. He cannot diagnose mental disorders unless supervised by a fully qualified psychologist.
Justice Paul Bellefontaine called the complaints before him a case of “sour grapes” — that the complainants would have likely not been concerned with Carter’s qualifications had their child custody outcomes been favourable.
Bellefontaine pointed to the “generic ignorance of the public” in knowing the difference between psychologists and psychological as- sociates — and said Carter should not be held criminally responsible for failing to tell his clients outright that he was a psychological associate. Outside the courtroom Friday morning, a grinning Carter called the judgment an “enormous relief” for both him and his family and said he hoped to put the “devastating” experience behind him. Complaints against Carter first surfaced in early 2010 when an Oshawa grandfather lost custody of his granddaughter after Carter testified at a custody hearing that the grandfather was a “raving lunatic.” The grandfather, who cannot be named to protect the granddaughter’s identity, said he began to probe Carter’s background and found that the “doctor” was not a fully qualified psychologist as he was led to believe, but a psychological associate, he later testified in court.
Carter holds a PH.D. of philosophy from Pacific Western University, which has been denounced by the U.S. government as a “diploma mill.” He tried but failed to get registered as a psychologist with the College of Psychologists of Ontario, but the regulating body declined to recognize his doctoral degree.
In 2010, the College of Psychologists found Carter guilty of professional misconduct after he went beyond his capabilities as a psychological associate by diagnosing a father, whom he had never met, with “narcissistic personality disorder.” He was suspended from working for three months and supervised for a year.
A subsequent Durham police investigation led to a spate of perjury, fraud and obstruction of justice charges — but most of those charges were dropped by the Crown without explanation in early 2011.
Carter, now free of criminal charges, faces two civil suits involving former clients. One of those suits involves the aggrieved grandfather who, outside the courtroom Friday, said he was “extremely disappointed” by the acquittal.