A man who pleaded guilty to fraud in Burnaby more than four years ago wants to take back his guilty plea.
Naresh Singh Mann (a.k.a. Nash Mann) was charged with one count of fraud over $5,000 and one count of theft over $5,000 in April 2018 after an investigation by the B.C. Securities Commission.
The securities watchdog alleged Mann, 56, had convinced a Vancouver resident to invest in an online gambling company in February 2013. (The NOW has learned the alleged victim was actually a Port Coquitlam resident at the time.)
Mann is alleged to have claimed the investment would generate “significant returns” in six months.
“Rather than invest the money as promised, it is alleged Mann misappropriated the bulk of the invested funds,” stated a BCSC news release after the charges were approved in April 2018.
Plea reversal
Mann pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000 in October 2018, but it took a year before a date (Oct. 9, 2019) was set for his sentencing – and that didn’t go ahead, according to the Vancouver provincial court registry.
He was scheduled for sentencing again just over a month ago but didn’t show up.
Then, on Wednesday, he appeared at a third sentencing hearing and announced he would be applying to change his guilty plea instead.
B.C. provincial court Judge David St. Pierre noted it was “not an insignificant application.”
“There’s a test to meet, and it’s a burden on you to meet that test,” St. Pierre said.
He urged Mann to get legal help because his lawyer – citing a conflict of interest – quit when Mann announced he would be applying to take back his guilty plea.
Mann has now gone through two lawyers since being charged.
He will be back in court on April 20 to set a date for the application to change his plea.
Crown prosecutor John Neal estimated the hearing would take about one hour.
‘I’m not a rich person’
Carlos Sardinha, the alleged victim in the case, told the NOW he met Mann at an optical store Mann owned in a strip mall in the Brentwood area.
Sardinha, now a 70-year-old retiree, said the alleged sum involved was $15,000, and Mann has refunded him $15,000 in payments over the last several years.
Sardinha said he reported the case to Burnaby RCMP but they told him there was nothing they could do.
He then contacted the RCMP’s anti-fraud centre, and they suggested he take the case to the B.C. Securities Commission.
The years-long ordeal has impacted Sardinha’s personal life and finances, he said.
“It was always on my mind. I’m not a rich person. When you’re on a fixed income, $15,000 is actually quite a bit,” he said.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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