#58: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN ✈️

✈️ TRAVEL - Barrie man pilots over 900 flights for Air Canada using fraudulent licences

🚓 CRIME - Winnipeg man arrested for setting Dollarama on fire

🇬🇪 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - BC man jailed overseas for flying into Eastern Europe with Adderall

Good morning.

In Steven Spielberg’s 2003 blockbuster Catch Me If You Can, the teenage hero Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo Dicaprio) poses as a pilot for Pan American World Airways.

He then forges payroll checks from Pan Am, which he cashes for millions of dollars.

An FBI agent (Tom Hanks) eventually busts him, but not before Abagnale bamboozles him multiple times through sheer tyranny of wit.

Abagnale is the quintessential American hero: the trickster who cons his way to impossible riches.

But Abagnale never actually flew a plane; he merely posed as a pilot for money.

The Canadian version of this story is one in which our hero – a Barrie man, of course – actually flies planes for our national airline using fraudulent pilot licenses.

You can’t tell me that’s not cooler than the petty fraud perpetrated by Frank Abagnale, Jr.

Enjoy today’s stories. 

-Peter

⌛️ Today’s read is 2 minutes long.

A Barrie man has been charged with fraud after allegedly captaining over 900 flights for Air Canada using fraudulent licenses.

Geoffrey Wall, 59, was arrested last Monday by Peel Regional Police and charged with fraud over $5,000, public mischief, two counts of uttering forged documents, and three counts of possession of counterfeit mark.

Wall began flying for Air Canada in 1998. He was promoted to captain in 2009, at which point he was required to obtain an airline transport pilot licence (ATPL), which is required for captains of large aircraft operated by airlines in Canada.

Wall did not get his ATPL, according to police.

“This is very similar to a doctor that is licensed to practice family medicine, but is doing brain surgery in their office,” said Peel Police Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich.

Over his 27-year career, Wall held several positions with the Air Canada Pilots Association, including chair of the master executive council, the association's governing body.

Air Canada said in a statement that while they are taking the matter seriously, safety was not compromised in spite of Wall’s alleged fraud.

Despite not having his ATPL, the airline says Wall passed his annual and bi-annual piloting tests with flying colours.

They fired and reported him to Transport Canada after discovering (at last) that he didn’t have his ATPL.

Winnipeg police have arrested a man after a Dollarama was set on fire in early May.

Police say 33-year-old Dwayne Earl Scatch entered the store on May 5 around 7 PM and “set some merchandise on fire” before fleeing.

“The fire quickly spread and resulted in substantial property and merchandise damage,” said police.

Onsite security extinguished the fire and nobody was hurt.

After identifying Scatch as a suspect, police found him on June 4 at the Winnipeg Remand Centre — a pre-trial detention facility — where they arrested him.

Scatch was already in custody for an unrelated matter.

He has been charged with arson and two counts of failing to comply with his probation.

A BC man could spend years in an Eastern European prison after trying to enter Georgia with a bottle of prescribed Adderall.

22-year-old Simon Rovensky from Coquitlam, British Columbia, flew to Georgia with a friend in late April when they were randomly stopped and searched at the border.

“They were subjected to many hours of questioning and a humiliating personal search,” said Simon’s sister Nika in a GoFundMe campaign, which she started to help cover legal fees for her brother.

“Customs officers conducted an extremely invasive inspection. The two were held for many hours without any understanding of what would happen next.”

Simon’s friend was released after seven hours in custody, but Simon was detained because of his Adderall, which is illegal in Georgia without proof of prescription.

Adderall is a brand-name prescription medication containing a mixture of amphetamine salts. It was prescribed to Simon — who has ADHD — by his Canadian doctor.

Simon showed the Georgian border officials a receipt for his prescription, but they said he needed to show them the original paperwork.

“My brother has a valid prescription,” Nika Rovensky told CTV News. “He clearly wasn’t trying to hide his medication. He made no attempt to conceal it, like he wasn’t, you know, trying to do anything illegal.”

Simon is charged with large-scale smuggling and the illegal acquisition and possession of narcotic substances.

Under Georgian law, he could face eight to 20 years in prison.

He is currently detained at Gldani Prison in Tbilisi.

His sentencing is scheduled for June 25.