Parole board denies fraud offender trip to Mexico

Ian Thow will not be going to Mexico after all.

The Parole Board of Canada has changed its mind and denied the fraud offender a trip to Mexico for a family member’s wedding.

In refusing to authorize out-of-country travel, the board cited the lack of genuine remorse displayed by Thow for his crimes and the possibility such a trip would increase his risk to reoffend.

“Based primarily on your ongoing manipulative and egocentric behaviour, decisions that appear to be contrary to genuine remorse and which are consistent with an ongoing callous attitude … the Board concludes that travel to Mexico will increase your risk to reoffend to an undue level,” the board wrote in its decision.

Thow, who worked as an investment adviser in Victoria, was convicted in 2010 of defrauding 20 former clients of $8 million.

He was released from prison in October 2012 after serving less than a third of a nine-year prison sentence. His parole runs until March 3, 2017.

The parole board also cited lack of confirmation that the Mexican government would accept Thow — his fraud offences meet the Mexican criteria for refusal of entry — and his history of fleeing Canada after he was charged.

In March 2014, the board confirmed that it had authorized out-of-country leave for Thow to attend a wedding in October 2014.

A hurricane forced the wedding to be postponed until February 2015, and it appears Thow’s behaviour over the last year was enough to convince the board to change its mind when it considered his new application for travel.

Since being granted full parole in the fall of 2012, Thow has changed jobs twice. The board also took issue with Thow’s requests to extend stays in Mexico. What was initially to be a seven-day trip, paid for by his family, was extended to nine and, most recently, he had requested 10 days for the February wedding.