Feb 11 1996 Guelph (CP) - A former Toronto police officer and his business partner were sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for defrauding more than a dozen people of their homes and life savings.
Michael Jenkinson, 41, and Joan Blackwell, 42, of Bolton Ont., were found guilty of 13 fraud offences in December after an almost three-month trial.
Between 1989 and 1991 eight couples were bilked out of $988,500 and one couple lost a thoroughbred racing stable valued at $1.2 million, court heard.
Most of the victims are from the Mississauga, Oakville and Burlington areas. Many of the victims are middle-aged or elderly people, whose financial security was destroyed. Victims testified at the trial that Blackwell and Jenkinson went to great lengths to encourage them to mortgage their homes and put the money into their group of companies called the Andsel Group.
The group's main projects included the development of an office complex in Mississauga. Blackwell and Jenkinson used the money to prop up other failing companies, court heard.