Digest: Saskatchewan (Director under The Seizure of Criminal Property Act, 2009) v Celestin, 2018 SKQB 113

• Date: April 12, 2018

Reported as: 2018 SKQB 113

Docket Number: QBG 912/18 JCR , QB17496

Court: Court of Queen's Bench

Date: 2018-04-12

Judges:

• Kalmakoff

Subjects:

• Criminal Law - Drug Offences - Forfeiture

Digest: The Director under The Seizure of Criminal Property Act, 2009 applied for an order forfeiting $1,990 in cash to the province. The money was seized from the defendant when he was arrested. The Director asserted that the money was proceeds of unlawful activity as defined by s. 2 of the Act and the defendant argued that the Director had failed to prove that the money was proceeds of unlawful activity and that the evidence showed that it was derived from gambling, a lawful activity. The police had been investigating several individuals for drug trafficking and an informer said that the defendant was involved. The police followed another of the suspected individuals in his vehicle and when they stopped it, they found 16 half-gram bags of cocaine in it. Afterwards the police continued their surveillance of that individual�s residence and saw the defendant leave it. After an officer approached him, the defendant fled the scene. The police then searched the house and found various amounts of various drugs and associated trafficking paraphernalia, including multiple cell phones, baggies, scales and scoresheets. In one room certain items belonging to the defendant were found. When the police eventually found the defendant, he was in the company of the other individual. The search of the defendant revealed $900 in one jacket pocket and in the other, the sum of $1,000. When arrested, the defendant told the police that the money was his winnings from gambling at the casino. The police reviewed the security footage from the casino and it showed the defendant playing there the previous day and that he won $900. The Director argued that the court should infer that the money the defendant used to purchase his initial $200 gambling stake must have come from proceeds of unlawful activity, and therefore, any winnings resulting from that �stake� money was proceeds as well.�
HELD: The Director�s application was granted in part. The court found that some but not all of the money seized from the defendant was the proceeds of unlawful activity. While there was no direct evidence that the defendant was trafficking in drugs, there was strong circumstantial evidence that he was and he had not provided a credible and reasonable explanation to counter...