The former executive director of a Salvation Army donation storage and distribution centre has been found guilty of a massive fraud involving selling donated items meant for shelters and food banks — including toys donated through the Christmas Toy Mountain campaign — for profit.
David Rennie was found guilty of several fraud-related offences on Wednesday by Ontario Court Justice Sandra Bacchus.
She found that after Rennie was appointed executive director of the centre in January 2010 he developed a relationship with a wholesaler, Umaish “Tony” Ramrattan. Rennie began allowing Ramrattan to pick the best donations — toys and food that was far from its expiry date — and take it to another warehouse and sell it for a profit. Trucks laden with donations from Nestle and Sun laundry detergent were rerouted to this second warehouse operated by Ramrattan.
The scheme took place under the guise of selling surplus donations to Ramrattan so he could use that money to buy goods the Salvation Army was in need of — like meat, canned protein and kosher food, Bacchus found. But staff at the Railside warehouse, the location of the donation centre, became concerned that their shelves were empty and the quality of the donations they were sending out were declining — while Rennie continued to authorize Ramrattan to take donations to sell. Records seized by police show Ramrattan took away far more in donations than he returned in purchased goods, Bacchus found.
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