Clients taken for $240,000
KEITH FRASER
The Vancouver Sun
A former Vancouver realtor who pleaded guilty to defrauding clients of more than $240,000 has been sentenced to two years in jail.
Court heard that Johnson Salanga used his position with Sutton WestCoast Realty and his position in the Filipino community to persuade clients to make payments to him on the false representation that the money would be used to purchase real estate.
Salanga, who pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud over $5,000, made ongoing representations to a Vancouver couple that their offer on a residential property had been accepted.
He persuaded them to make ongoing payments towards the purchase price and forged a contract of purchase and sale. The couple were eventually out of pocket $173,000.
The second fraud related to Salanga, who lost his real estate licence after the crimes were reported to police, involved persuading a man to invest $70,000 in a residential real estate property. The deal fell through but the victim was able to recoup his $70,000 loss from a compensation fund of the Real Estate Council of B.C.
The Crown called for a 24to 30-month jail term, but Salanga argued he should get a six-month jail term followed by a conditional sentence of 18 months less a day, given the fact his life had come apart following his mother’s death and a downturn in the market in 2010.
The offender began drinking heavily, a bottle of scotch a day, and gambling.
But in imposing sentence Monday, B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen said that while Salanga had accepted responsibility and expressed remorse, his explanation for the fraudulent behaviour was not of the sort to allow a conditional sentence.
The judge noted that while Salanga’s problems no doubt personally affected him, they did not explain the “loss of his moral compass.”
“At its core, his behaviour represents a surrender to self-indulgence without regard for the serious impact on the lives of those he targeted with his deception.”
Salanga, who was also ordered to pay $243,000 in restitution, had little reaction to the sentence.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.