Sarnia fraudster jailed 9 months for breaking house arrest rules

A Sarnia senior who recently got house arrest for defrauding local residents with fake but convincing stories about his ailing wife to get small amounts of money will be spending nine months in jail after breaking the rules of his conditional sentence.

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Bernd Adamek, 65, was arrested last March following a two-day search that featured a pair of high-speed getaways, Sarnia police said at the time. He was charged with five counts of fraud, two counts each of flight from police and dangerous driving, and a dozen counts of breaching probation, police said.

He eventually pleaded guilty to just two counts of fraud and was sentenced in August to about 1.5 years of house arrest on top of 209 days in pre-plea custody, but the pair of convictions included several victims and a wide variety of facts, the judge recalled during Adamek’s recent hearing on breaching his conditional sentence.

“Mr. Adamek’s fraudulent behavior consisted of him approaching a significant number of kind-hearted members of the community with a cock and bull story about his wife suffering a stroke and being in the hospital and needing funds to go and visit her,” Justice Mark Poland said. “He used this lie intended to play on the heartstrings of community members to extract money from a substantial number of people.”

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Adamek also endangered the community by driving dangerously last March, Poland added.

After starting his conditional sentence in August, which included house arrest at a local homeless shelter and GPS tracking, Adamek was arrested Dec. 10 on three allegations he broke the rules. They included not returning to the shelter by 7 pm on Dec. 4 after being permitted by his supervisor to leave that day; letting his GPS tracker’s battery die the next morning; and not meeting his supervisor that afternoon. Adamek was arrested Dec. 10 at a friend’s home on Eastlawn Avenue.

He testified at his hearing he was sick and couldn’t sleep at the shelter and went to his friend’s house to sleep on Dec. 4. But the retired pipefitter also claimed he was arrested the next day and that’s why the GPS device died and he missed his appointment with his supervisor.

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However, that didn’t line up with records showing a warrant wasn’t issued until Dec. 6 and he was arrested Dec. 10.

“It’s a significant period of time. It’s a significantly greater period of time than Mr. Adamek conceded,” Poland said.

Defense lawyer Terry Brandon said she couldn’t argue against what the records said. They eventually conceded the three breaches.

Poland called them high-handed and flagrant.

“Mr. Adamek effectively thumbed his nose at the conditional sentence order that was imposed,” he said.

As for Adamek’s testimony, Poland pointed out he was convicted prior to August of fraud – he got 200 days in 2023 for similar schemes – and said his evidence wasn’t credible or reliable.

“It is unworthy of belief,” he said. “I reject it wholesale.”

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With the breaches being admitted to, the judge said he had several options including terminating the conditional sentence and sending him to jail for the rest of it, suspending it and have him serve a portion behind bars, changing the rules, or taking no action.

Adamek had about 400 days to go as of the first breach on Dec. 4.

With drugs being a long-term issue for Adamek, Poland opted to suspend the conditional sentence and have him serve nine months in jail at a facility with a drug treatment program before serving the rest of his house arrest term.

“Mr. Adamek must understand and get the message very clearly, which he apparently missed the last time,” he said.

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