Pedestrian forced at gunpoint to join bogus-cheque scam, court hears

By CHRIS COBB

OTTAWA, Canada, April 2, 2008 - A pedestrian out for a midmorning stroll along Rideau Street last January was forced into a car at gunpoint and ordered by his abductors to cash counterfeit cheques at area banks, an Ottawa court was told on Wednesday.

Crown prosecutor Mark Moors alleged that Hussein Abdi and an accomplice stopped 20-year-old Scott Illing at Rideau and Cobourg and ordered him at gunpoint to get into their car. Mr. Abdi, who had been released only weeks before the alleged incident after serving five months in jail, then drove with Mr. Illing to a CIBC and two TD-Canada Trust banks in Gatineau and a third TD bank at Rideau and Chapel.

Mr. Abdi, 30, who has been back in jail since his arrest in early February, said he was broke and needed to make some quick money. He admits he forged cheques and took part in the fraud and attempted fraud, but says Mr. Illing was a willing participant and denies any firearms were involved.

The alleged accomplice was not charged because Mr. Illing could not identify him in a subsequent police lineup.

Mr. Abdi, who came to Ottawa from Somalia with his family in 1990, said he and his accomplice went looking for someone who would look like a legitimate bank customer and get them access to quick money.

"We looked for someone clean-cut who would have no problem cashing cheques and who would have ID and an account," he said.  

Mr. Abdi said they stopped Mr. Illing, who then had long hair and ear and lip piercings.

"He looked like a hippy or punk or something like that," Mr. Abdi told the court.

After some initial banter about whether Mr. Illing might have access to marijuana, Mr. Abdi claims he then proposed a cheque-cashing deal to Mr. Illing. He alleges Mr. Illing agreed to take part in the scam in exchange for $100.

Mr. Illing denied Mr. Abdi's version of events and insisted in court that he had been abducted and intimidated by Mr. Abdi and his accomplice.

"I was scared," he said. "I was scared something was going to happen to me."

Although he insisted that no gun or abduction was involved, Mr. Abdi agreed with the prosecutor's version of events that he and an accomplice drove Mr. Illing to a Gatineau apartment, where he used Mr. Illing's identification to create phoney cheques in the approximate amounts of $700, $800 and $900 made out to his name on a fictitious company's account.

The trio then went to the four banks, but only one - a Gatineau TD-Canada Trust - agreed to advance any money. The teller gave Mr. Illing $540 in cash and kept $240 frozen in his account until the cheque cleared.

Under questioning from defence lawyer Doug Baum, Mr. Illing said although he went into three of the banks while Mr. Abdi and his accomplice waited in their car, fear kept him from either running away or alerting bank officials that he had been abducted.

Mr. Baum also questioned why, after being dropped off on Rideau Street by Mr. Abdi, he had gone to visit  friends at the Rideau Centre instead of immediately calling police.

"I looked for comfort, so I went to my friends," he said.

But Mr. Illing did concede that Mr. Abdi and his accomplice were not too unpleasant during the alleged abduction.

"I was scared," he said, "but other than making me get into the car and telling me what to do, they were nice guys."

Mr. Baum's motion to have the firearms charges against Mr. Abdi dropped was rejected by Justice Richard Lajoie.

The case continues today.

Source: Ottawa citizen