Canada Post business analysts started referring to him “the Stamp Guy.”
Canada Post business analysts started referring to him “the Stamp Guy.”
For at least three years, Allan Fischer, 59, set up fake business accounts with fake phone numbers, address and emails all across Canada for bulk mail with the postal service.
First, he called Canada Post for a faxed application for bulk mail services. The application would be filled out and returned, usually asking for rush status, allowing the fake company to order up to $7,500 in products on credit with no credit check.
Once Fischer had a new account, he would forgo any bulk mail services and simply order stamps and pre-paid products to be shipped to various UPS stores where he had mailboxes across Southwestern Ontario.
And he would never pay the accounts.
On Friday, Fischer was convicted of fraud and possession of property obtained by crime valued at more than $5,000 for what Superior Court Justice Spencer Nicholson called “an elaborate and sophisticated scheme.”
Between 2013 and 2016, using 48 fake business addresses, Fischer defrauded Canada Post of $234,763.31 in stamps and other products. He would sell the stamps at a discount to various customers, some of whom found him online through kijiji ads.
Fischer’s scheme was so elaborate, the judge said he could come to “no other conclusion that his act was intentional and for the purpose of obtaining Canada Post products without paying for them.”
The scheme had many layers. Fischer rented mailboxes throughout Southwestern Ontario in London, St. Thomas, Tillsonburg, Woodstock, Cambridge, Chatham and Waterloo and would have Canada Post products delivered there for fake companies in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia.
Canada Post became suspicious when it started looking into 50 to 60 unpaid business accounts, all for unpaid stamp products, and couldn’t contact the customers by the phone number listed.
Google searches would come up empty and the businesses and companies either didn’t exist or the address listed didn’t match up.
A Canada Post inspector started looking into 30 of the accounts in May 2016. One of the addresses was at the Executive Center in downtown London, where the inspector was able to get Fischer’s name and see him pick up packages in his car.
The last 11 orders intended for businesses across the country were shipped to that address.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called to examine spreadsheets of activity mapped out by Canada Post. They also had nine audio recordings of someone with a similar voice calling Canada Post to start new business accounts using different names and addresses, then ordering the stamps.
Also suspect on the applications were similar answers to selected security questions. Several times, the make of first car was Datsun, the name of first girlfriend was Connie, favorite concert was Blue Rodeo and favorite book was Think and Grow Rich.
At least three times, the same phone number was used for fake companies in Regina, Barrie and Winnipeg,
At his trial earlier this year, where Fischer represented himself without a lawyer, Nicholson heard from customers who would buy stamps at a 30 per cent discount – and sometimes still be owed money – and employees who were interviewed at Tim Horton coffee shops to be short -term office help or web designers to add legitimacy to his business dealings.
Also testifying were members of a non-profit group who unknowingly were listed on an Executive Center mailbox for Canada Post deliveries.
Ultimately, the RCMP seized Fischer’s computers and electronic devices and found Canada Post applications and other records. There was evidence for 48 fake accounts.
Fischer’s defense was he was conducting a legitimate centralized business, “doing the work of many” for clients across the country.
“I reject these assertions. I have found that the businesses involved did not exist or were created by Mr. Fischer,” Nicholson said.
“It does not make any reasonable sense that a company located in Abbotsford, BC, or Calgary, Alberta, (would have) more convenience having its product shipped to Chatham.”
He agreed with assistant Crown attorney Adam Campbell that if Fischer was conducting business with the companies “there would be emails between Mr. Fischer and his business and these entities found on his devices.”
Investigators found no communications or invoices.
“I have found that Mr. Fischer was the mastermind of a sophisticated and elaborate fraud of the Canada Post Corp.,” Nicholson said.
“To disguise his scheme, Mr. Fischer went to considerable lengths to create background information to substantiate the existence of fake businesses. . . . As sophisticated as this scheme was, Mr. Fischer was caught and has now been convicted.”
Before setting a sentencing date, Fischer asked the judge how the next phase would affect the appeal process.
Fischer’s sentencing is set for Aug. 17.