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2007

Westmount lawyer gets 15 months for bilking widows

As a shaking and thin Gordon McGilton, 75, hunched in the witness box yesterday, complaining of an angina attack and pleading he'd rather die than go to jail, the judge stuck to her guns.

"I'm not going to have any of that in my courtroom," Quebec Court Judge Elizabeth Corte said sternly before sentencing the ex-lawyer to 15 months in prison for defrauding his clients, mostly elderly widows, of $1.7 million.

She ordered that the sentence be followed by two years' probation and that McGilton perform 180 hours of community work, preferably at the Old Brewery Mission, one of the charities that lost a substantial donation because of his fraud.

In sentencing him, the judge took into account that McGilton pleaded guilty to 15 counts of fraud, as well as the fact he's legally blind, feels remorse and had no prior run-ins with the law.

McGilton and his wife have sold their Westmount home and are living on government pensions in an apartment.

But Corte also took into consideration the lengthy of time over which McGilton's crime was committed, the fact he was a professional, and the psychological and financial effects on his victims.

"He abused his clients' trust and defrauded them of over

$1.6 million," Corte said as McGilton sat with his head resting on his folded arms on the table. "He acted deliberately and purposefully in order to maintain his family's lifestyle."

The once upstanding Westmount resident had a spotless reputation as a volunteer at his church and a respected lawyer with 42 years of experience - which is why people trusted him with their money. He resigned from the bar in 2000.

Promising returns of between 8 and 10 per cent, McGilton withdrew money from his clients' trust accounts between 1990 and 2001, deposited the funds in his or his wife's personal account, then transferred some of the money to Bebec Investments Inc., a company owned by his cousin William Beattie.

Beattie, who has since died of a heart attack, was pumping the money into a bogus Nigerian oil investment. Even when Beattie told the lawyer 21/2 years into the scheme that the investments weren't bearing fruit, McGilton continued to send his cousin money.

McGilton kept no proper accounting and gave his clients - eight elderly women - no proper disclosure. The Old Brewery Mission and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals each missed out on $22,500 left to them in women's wills because McGilton didn't let them know. McGill University found out five years after one supporter died that she had left the school $64,710.

Even McGilton's own church, the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, lost out on $2,950 left to it in one will.

In one case, McGilton withdrew $72,000 from a client's account the day after she died and the bank wasn't notified of her death until 20 months later.

Corte said the court doesn't impose a sentence out of vengeance or retaliation, because the wrong can't be undone and "it doesn't heal the wounds."

The Crown had asked for a sentence of three years in a penitentiary. The defence lawyer, Jeffrey Boro, had asked that his client serve two years less a day under house arrest.

As McGilton shuffled from the prisoner's box dragging his small overnight bag behind him, his coat draped over his arm, the judge turned to Boro and shrugged.

"Some days are harder than others," she said as McGilton disappeared through a door and off to jail.

smontgomery@thegazette.canwest.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007

Friday, October 31, 2001 Estate lawsuit targets socialite lawyer
Montreal philanthropist: Gordon McGilton Q.C., was a well-known lawyer, a prominent figure on English Montreal's social scene who could be counted on to pitch in for charity. Former clients allege more than $1M in funds misused
by Graeme Hamilton and Heather Sokoloff National Post photo by Christinne Muschi
, seen at his Montreal home yesterday, has left positions with Stanstead College and the Montreal Association for the Blind. ...family is seeking nearly $175,000 missing from her father's estate ...with his client's approval, to provide a return "above the rate paid by other financial institutions." [Be careful, this could be a lawyer who are trying to do a good job for their clients and there is not enough infomation here to judge ... DTN]