A former public works employee with the city of Port Coquitlam faces a theft charge for allegedly stealing copper piping from the municipality.
Today (Monday), Coquitlam RCMP announced Harold Edward Lewis — a 56-year-old PoCo resident — had been charged with the offence following a police investigation that started July 13.
Lewis, a former water operator, is expected to make his first court appearance Dec. 3 at Port Coquitlam provincial court on one count of theft under $5,000.
Cpl. Mike McLaughlin told The Tri-City News that while city managers notified the RCMP of seven city workers who had been fired for allegedly stealing copper piping and sold the product for scrap metal for personal gain, “the evidence to proceed only supports a single criminal charge.”
“Our investigation is complete from a police perspective,” he said. “We have talked to everybody that we could — dozens of potential witnesses and suspects — and have looked into everything that was supplied by the city. There will be no more charges unless new evidence comes forward.”
In July — as exclusively reported by The Tri-City News — the city dismissed seven workers in the engineering and public works department for allegedly taking copper pipes over a 10-year period. The estimated loss to the city was at least $75,000 and the workers’ length of service with the city ranged from one-and-a-half years to 21 years.
Ron Narayan, acting president for CUPE Local 498, which represents unionized PoCo city workers, told The Tri-City News that the preliminary grievance hearings are now concluded for the seven employees and the case is up for arbitration.
The firings came two months after Dean McIntosh — a former PoCo facility maintenance co-ordinator — was sentenced for stealing about $175,000 from the city over three years; he received an 18-month conditional sentence order after he pleaded guilty in March to obtaining money over $5,000 by false pretences.
McIntosh used the city’s credit card and purchasing system to buy tools and small machines, which were later resold via a third party. He admitted to his illegal actions when confronted by city managers, apologized and showed them how he committed his crimes. He also reimbursed the city for the full amount.
In a statement, Steve Traviss, PoCo’s human resources director, said the city did its “due diligence” to alert police about the seven employees who had been let go in early July.
“Over the last few months, our priority has been learning from the incident,” he noted. “We have been reviewing the structure, processes and procedures in place for monitoring the inventory, usage and disposal of city property and implementing measures to help prevent such thefts in the future.”
He added, “We thank our employees for their continued professionalism and service to our community during this difficult time and for working hard every day to earn the trust of our citizens. Our residents can be assured that all essential service needs are being met to the highest safety standards.”
