A Burnaby fraudster who bilked a North Vancouver couple’s business out of nearly $400,000 has been handed a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence.
Arthur Tat-Yue Wong, 52, pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 after a lengthy investigation found he used his position as financial controller for Unique Accommodations to “plunder” the company’s funds to pay for his Porsche, numerous vacations to Las Vegas and Florida, as well as his daily credit card bills and expenses. He also overpaid himself and his wife, who he’d hired as a part-time assistant.
“In this case, greed and greed alone was the only motivating factor for him,” Judge John Milne of the North Vancouver provincial court said in handing down the sentence.
Wong’s defence lawyer had been seeking a conditional sentence of two years less a day to be served in the community. Wong’s family relationships and reputation have suffered since the time of his arrest, his lawyer argued, and Wong pleaded guilty to the crime.
But Milne said Wong had little insight into his crime and demonstrated a sense of entitlement to other people’s money. Wong’s deceit nearly cost Mark Teasdale and Nina Ferentinos their business, he said, and as a result of the fraud, Unique Accommodations had to close its Squamish office and lay off five employees.
The judge said it was clear Wong implicated his wife in the crimes without her knowing. The Crown prosecutor stayed the charges she faced.
Outside the court, Ferentinos expressed relief at the end of the ordeal and seeing Wong led off to jail.
“That was definitely a good feeling. It’s been such a long time coming. When this started in 2009, we wouldn’t have anticipated it would have taken seven years,” she said. “Not that I harbour a lot of anger towards him. I would hope he would have some remorse, but he just doesn’t.”
While the crime has taken its emotional toll, the North Vancouver couple has rebuilt their business to be even more successful than it was before Wong derailed it, she added.
“I said at the time, ‘Over my dead body would I let him take away what we built,’” Ferentinos said. “It took us a couple years to scrape back what we had lost in the way of the competitive edge but now we’ve been able to completely overhaul everything. . . . In some ways, there’s always a silver lining. I think in some ways, it’s made us a better company.”
