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Whistler couple ordered deported

Former owners of SecurCom and SecurePro lose appeal to stay in Canada

A Whistler couple who have allegedly left a trail of fraud victims from Germany to Prince George to Vancouver have lost their appeal to stay in Canada.

Peter Hans Simon and Sybille Anita Simon, who used to operate SecurCom and SecurPro in Whistler, have been ordered deported by the Immigration and Refugee Board Appeal Division.

The couple and their lawyer declined to comment on the case.

It’s not known if they have left the country.

The deportation order follows a conviction of fraud against the Simons in 2000, after they cheated investors in Vancouver and Prince George of $96,000.

The convictions make them inadmissible to Canada.

Both are originally from Germany.

According to the immigration appeal decision the Simons met in Germany when Peter hired Sybille as his assistant. At that time he went by the name of Peter Weirauch and according to his own testimony he ran a financial investment business in Germany which, when he came to Canada in 1994, had holdings exceeding $6.5 million, the majority being in real estate investments.

He also had about $1 million in cash which he brought to Canada.

However, his company ran into difficulties with one of its financial deals between November 1993 and January 1994, forcing Weirauch to file for bankruptcy.

Once they landed in Vancouver, "(they) rented a home in the British Properties and purchased two vehicles, a Jaguar and a pick up truck for which they paid $150,000 cash," states the immigration tribunal decision.

They also arranged to get married and Weirauch decided to take the name Simon, explaining that his name change was prompted, "by the fact that ‘Simon’ is a much easier name to pronounce in his chosen country of immigration."

They spent their first two years in Canada exploring British Columbia because they had, "a lot of money, and no business…"

But by January 1996 the honeymoon was over and the Simons became concerned about how fast they were depleting their financial resources.

They began to look around for some investment opportunities. The first came along in the form of a company incorporated by Peter Simon, Royal Retirement Investment Inc.

He took out loans against his vehicles to have some cash and in September 1996 entered into an agreement to purchase the Lord Nelson Apartments in Vancouver.

The Simons also moved out of their rented home in West Vancouver and into another rented home in Burnaby.

Simon managed to sell one unit in Lord Nelson to a German acquaintance for $25,000. A general manager was also hired and invested $30,000 in the company for a 10 per cent share.

However, Simon was unable to sell any more units by the closing date of April 30, 1997 and in May 1997 the owner of Lord Nelson Apartments sold the building to another purchaser.

Simon, however, had spent the investor’s money and could not return it to him.

Not put off, Simon got involved in a similar scheme with the Ashnola Apartments.

Again he found a couple to invest in the building, "and these funds were used by (Simon) partially to cover business expenses and partially to cover the personal expenses of himself and his wife," states the appeal decision.

The saga leading up to fraud convictions began in February 1997 when the Simons leased space in the Oceanic Building Centre in Vancouver.

There they met and hired an administrative assistant.

During a social event the Simons met some of the assistant’s relatives from Prince George. They were curious to know how the Simons were living so well considering sales of the Oceanic were going so poorly.

"(The Simons) advised the visitors that they were able to make investment through the German Consulate which yielded 10 to 12 per cent per month," states the decision.

"(Simon) explained that his wife made this claim at first, only with the idea of saving face, of providing an explanation for their outward appearance of wealth, not wishing to admit to people that they had just met that in fact they were quite strapped financially."

However, the visitors were intrigued by the scheme and implied that they too might be interested in investing.

With only a follow-up call from Sybille the Prince George residents handed over $50,000 in August 1997 and a further $20,000 in October.

The Simons even visited them in Prince George and "became closer friends."

Meanwhile the Simons also prevailed on their administrative assistant to invest in the German Consulate scheme as well as $25,000 in Ashnola Apartments, which the couple owned no interests in during June 1997.

"(The Simons) confirmed that they used the money received from (the assistant and the Prince George residents) to pay back funds owed to other ‘investors’, as well as to cover their own bills and expenses," states the appeal decision.

By January 1998 the administrative assistant and her relatives became suspicious. In addition the Simons failed to pay her wages.

She filed a complaint with the B.C. Securities Commission and also with the police.

In March 1998 Peter Simon left a message on the administrative assistant’s phone answering machine which said: "…there are actually no consular investment. Um, I actually took the money… Ya, that’s the truth. I just thought about it and wanted to let you know that this money wasn’t invested with someone at the consulate. So I just couldn’t sleep through the night and I thought about the whole thing and I think it is better that I let you know now."

In June 1998 the Simons moved to Whistler after seeing an ad for strawberry pickers in Pemberton.

After a week of picking Sybille got a job as a secretary of Spearhead Security, which sold and installed alarm systems under a dealership with ADT.

Two weeks after that Peter got a job as a guard with Whistler Guard and Patrol, a company which was owned by the same person who owned Spearhead.

Within months Peter was made manager and by November, according to Simon, the owner agreed to him becoming a partner in the business, receiving a 50 per cent share of the profits.

In the spring of 1999 the owner of Spearhead decided to close up shop. In September of that year ADT awarded the dealership for Whistler to Peter Simon.

On Jan. 20, 2000 the Simons pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud totalling $99,777.

They were sentenced to 90 days in jail, to be served on weekends at the Squamish jail, given consecutive 12 month conditional sentences, put on probation and ordered to pay back the money they took.

During the immigration appeal Peter Simon said he only understood in May of 2000 that he could not be a director of a company for five years following a criminal conviction.

"He therefore removed his name as director of his company, Whistler Guard and Patrol, and replaced it with the name of his sales manager…" states the appeal decision.

In July 2000 the Simons moved out of their apartment and into a rented home in Emerald Estates.

In August of 2000 SecurCom and SecurPro were both incorporated by the sales manager of the guard company.

The Simons ran into trouble when Sybille did a house call to a new Whistler homeowner who recognized her and knew she had a fraud conviction.

To sell security services one must have a security licence, and you can’t get a licence if you have a criminal conviction.

The homeowner filed a complaint with the Security Programs Division of the Ministry of Public Safety. After an investigation Sybille was fined $282. SecurCom was fined $575.

The Simons maintained that they were not running the business but a ministry investigator found that, "had the true ownership of the businesses been disclosed to the Registrar, neither of the business licenses would have been renewed," states the immigration appeal decision.

The government yanked the security company licenses in September 2002 and SecurCom and SecurPro ceased operations.

But ministry officials were concerned that the couple were still offering security through another company, Atina Management Services, and took the unusual step of issuing a warning to local residents about the Simons’ security operations in April 2003.

Since late 2002, early 2003 the couple testified that they have been working for McGuire Enterprises Inc.

The owner of the company, Don McGuire, testified he was surprised to learn that Sybille Simon, his office manager, had been involved with the misuse of funds and "spoke very highly of (her) and the work she had performed for him," states the immigration appeal decision.

McGuire also hired Peter Simon and trained him as a technician for a new product he was marketing, Crystal Clear Solutions. In August 2003 Peter Simon started a new company, Miracle Windows Inc, not yet registered as a company within B.C., to market the product.

Simon is also taking correspondence with a university in Scotland and has received certificates of achievement in post-graduate business administration, accounting, economics and organizational behaviour. He testified that he is working toward a Masters Degree in Business Administration at the same university.

In making the decision immigration tribunal member Anita Boscariol found the offence which the Simons were convicted of was serious, "involving as it did the defrauding of innocent and trusting people out of what could easily be a sizeable portion of their life savings.

"The seriousness of the offence is also exacerbated by the fact that it was followed by actions which could only be characterized as a deliberate attempt to misrepresent to the Security Programs Division of the Ministry of Public Safety and the Solicitor General, the nature of the appellants’ interest in two security companies in order to maintain the licenses issued to the companies."

There is no evidence that the appellants ever misused the security licenses.

"However, their history in Canada and the fact that they have conducted themselves both dishonestly and dishonourably, both before and after their conviction, renders their overall misconduct more serious," states Boscariol.

She also found the expressions of remorse from the Simons somewhat insincere as they were, "peppered with expressions of the harm which had befallen them…"

"The (Simons) have not demonstrated rehabilitation, nor that they are a low risk of re-offending in future."