The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today that Surrey resident, Mark Andrew Rosie, was sentenced on May 22, 2013, in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, for eleven counts of falsely claiming and obtaining income tax refunds and credits, three counts of income tax evasion and two counts of possession of stolen property. Rosie received a total of three and one half years in prison and a fine of $142,049. Rosie was convicted on December 12, 2012.

A CRA investigation determined that each of the frauds was well planned, sophisticated and multifaceted. It was found that Rosie obtained personal information from taxpayer victims, manipulated CRA’s records for taxpayer addresses so the cheques would be diverted to Rosie, prepared false returns and setup and used bank accounts in other people’s names. The fraudulent refunds and credit claims obtained were ultimately diverted to Rosie’s bank accounts or those he controlled.

Rosie did not limit the fraud to friends and acquaintances. He also targeted vulnerable people with drug habits or addictions, using a third party to obtain their personal information from them in exchange for drugs.