Balraj Singh “Roger” Bhatti was convicted in May this year, but the judge’s decision was published online this week. In total, he pleaded guilty to 17 charges: three criminal counts of forgery, six criminal counts of uttering false documents and eight counts of making a false statement under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Acts. The offenses date back to 2005, the court heard, with most occurring between 2009 and 2014. All of the criminal charges involve falsifying medical documents in order to delay hearings. The IRPA violations related to falsifying medical and police reports “in concert” with a Hungarian interpreter in order to make false claims on refugee status applications, court documents state. Canada Border Services Agency has launched an investigation into Bhatti and the interpreter, Sofiane Dahak. in 2012. Criminal proceedings began in September 2020, when charges were laid and Bhatti was disbarred from practicing law. Crown counsel asked the court to sentence Bhatti to three years in prison and a $100,000 fine. Bhatti’s defense lawyers asked for a suspended sentence with strict conditions.
MEDICAL NOTES
Bhatti, Judge Mark Jetté wrote in his ruling, forged those notes on the letterhead of two different doctors. On several occasions, Bhatti submitted notes outlining medical issues that would prevent his clients from attending their scheduled hearings. In one case, he said the client had been admitted to the hospital after a heart attack, recommending a postponement on the grounds that the client had been advised “not to exercise or subject himself to undue stress for at least the next two weeks. ” the court heard. In another, Bhatti’s fake note said the customer’s hearing aid was broken, requesting a delay until a replacement could be obtained. In the third case, the note claimed that a customer was suffering from kidney stones and would need time to allow them to pass. All three hearings were adjourned, with the “strength” of the memo a key factor, the judge noted. When interviewed by the CBSA, both doctors “advised that they had not met any of these individuals and had not prepared these documents,” the ruling states. On other occasions, Bhatti forged letters saying that he himself was suffering from health problems that prevented him from attending the scheduled dates. Those hearings were also successfully adjourned. In those cases, Bhatti used the letterhead of his actual family doctor, who “told investigators that he had not met with Mr. Bhatti on the dates indicated in these letters and had not prepared or signed them,” according to by the judge’s decision. . For all this, Bhatti was sentenced to two months in prison, to be served concurrently. “Although different client files and hearings are involved in some of these charges, I believe that the conduct underlying all of these offenses was part of a connected series of acts in a single effort,” Jetté wrote. “The sole effort was Mr. Bhatti’s desire to obtain adjournments of the scheduled hearings because he was in fact unwell, overworked and unprepared, or both.”
PLASTIC DOCUMENTS FOR CUSTOMERS
The eight counts of misrepresentation all stemmed from refugee claims made by Hungarian nationals who identified themselves as Roma and were seeking refugee status due to persecution based on their nationality. In all these cases, the judge notes, Bhatti did not act alone. The defense tried to argue that Bhatti played a “subordinate role” and was merely a “cog in the machine” in these cases, with Dahak acting as “the principal organizer and mastermind of a people-smuggling operation aimed at helping Hungarian nationals to make false refugee claims in this country.” The forged documents in these cases included a death certificate to support a client’s claim that their brother was murdered. In another case, a police report was falsified detailing an attack that never took place in which anti-Roma slurs were used. A fake medical report was also created to support claims that this attack resulted in an injury that required stitches. “The evidence supports a finding that Mr. Bhatti was closely involved in creating the content for the false reports,” Jetté wrote. In total, the court heard Bhatti provided false documents on five occasions. Some of the claims were successful and others were not, but in all of them, Bhatti used the information from the forged documents to further his clients’ cases and defraud the board. “Mr. Bhatti submitted Hungarian police reports and/or medical records that he knew to be false in order to induce the IRB to make a finding in favor of his clients,” Jetté wrote. For each of the eight counts of forgery, Bhatti was sentenced to four months in prison – some to be served concurrently and others consecutively. In rejecting the defense’s contention that Bhatti’s sentence could be served in the community with strict conditions, the judge highlighted several factors. “The seriousness of these offences, the fact that Mr Bhatti was acting in his capacity as an attorney, the impact Mr Bhatti’s conduct had on the integrity of the refugee conference system in this county and Mr Bhatti’s high Moral dignity demands a sentence of institutional imprisonment,” Jetté wrote.
