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died after handing over his money.
“I’m dealing with his wife,” said Peacock. “And I’ve been doing
that since Christmas. He died right around Christmas. I’ve had a hell
of a time. Brings tears to your eyes, when you think about it,” added a
dry-eyed Peacock.
We tracked Ian Anderson down to a beautiful cottage in Central
Ontario. Crew and all, we marched on the front door, The Dog in tow.
Anderson, a large, pear-shaped man, opened the door and waved off
the camera crew. He would talk to us inside, but the crew would have
to wait on the porch. Fair enough.
In we went. Anderson breezily dismissed this whole brouhaha as if
it were almost too trivial for him to deal with — oh he of the millions
and millions, or so he said. This sure wasn’t much of a news story, he
said. Well, it might not feel like a big news story now, I said to myself. Just
wait until we stick it in your ear.
With The Dog rolling, Anderson went all magnanimous on us,
explaining that he did not have the money, did not really know where
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Getting What You Deserve
it went, and that probably Peacock had it. Anderson admitted that all
this publicity was a bad thing.
“I’ll give you back the $85,000 or I’ll put up the $85,000 to stop
this,” he said.
That’s the promise that went on television, but no money ever
flowed from Anderson. Soon, Police in Barrie were interested in the
case. After an investigation, they charged Peacock and Anderson with
an assortment of twenty-eight offences, including fraud. But by then,
Anderson had moved to Prince Edward Island. Barrie Police were not
sure of his location on the Island. They were reluctant to send officers
to PEI on what could have been a wild goose chase.
That didn’t stop us. We went to PEI, located and recorded two res-
idence addresses, a place of business (he was about to begin operating
a limousine service in Charlottetown), and tracked down a full descrip-
tion, including plate number, for his black SUV.
Then we tracked down Anderson himself, as he sat idling in a
supermarket parking lot, near Murray Harbour North. No Dog this
time. We parked at the other end of the lot. I bailed out quickly and
began a fast walk to the SUV. Jennifer and the crew approached from
a different angle, keeping the equipment low to the ground so
Anderson could not spot us coming. Suddenly, I popped up at his open
window; a second later, the crew was there too.
“You lost?” asked Anderson, always the cool guy.
“No. Are you?”
“No. I’m home. Please take that (camera) out of my face.”
“It’s not in your face.”
“Yes, it is.”
“I’m sorry. We’re not turning it off.”
Anderson rolled up the window and drove off. The next time we
saw him, a few weeks later, he was in police custody back in Toronto.
He had only rude comments for us that time.
Anderson and Peacock pleaded guilty to fraud and were convict-
ed. Alex Carrigan’s family hired a lawyer and sued Anderson,
Peacock, and Publisher Moran. Peacock had already paid some money
back to Carrigan, the result of a restitution order during the criminal
trial. Ian Anderson was bankrupt for a second time, this time owing
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Bring the Dog
creditors more than $1 million, so there was no blood in that stone.
And Moran, not charged criminally, had forever declared himself both
innocent and penniless.
In the civil trial, Mr. Justice Peter Howden of the Ontario Superior
Court, ordered Walter James Moran to pay $88,000 in damages to the
Carrigan family. Moran said at the time that he was appealing the
award but remained broke.
In his judgment, Justice Howden said of Moran and Seniors Plus:
This is not simply a case of a newspaper merely taking
an advertisement and being careless about the facts. In
this case, Moran actively participated in the fraudu-
lent scheme in using his and his publication’s position
of trust with elderly readers by falsely representing the
scheme, meeting the prospects, encouraging them to
pay into the scheme, acting as the continuing contact
person thereafter, being present for the pitch to obtain [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]