The former owner of Pourvoirie des Laurentides, now Pourvoirie de La Doré, in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Maxime De Varennes faces a three-year prison sentence.
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The 44-year-old man, who made himself public by assaulting a film crew in August 2016, was found guilty of a series of frauds and pretenses last October.
Between May and June 2016, he had defrauded nine companies out of a total of approximately $130,000 by writing 10 bad checks. He never honored his payment agreements and his victims were never compensated.
Judge Michel Boudreault had called him a “liar”, “manipulator” and “of great dishonesty” and he was “completely unconcerned about the consequences of his obligations”.
At the sentencing hearing at Roberval Courthouse on Thursday, the Chief of Criminal Investigation and Prosecution, Me Marie-Philippe Charron, called for a three-year sentence.
“The defendant planned and deliberately planned his actions, she argued before the judge. He has never shown remorse and acted out of greed, leading us to believe he might do it again.”
The defense proposes instead a prison sentence of 12 to 20 months in society with a suspended sentence. According to Me Charles Levasseur, De Varennes must be considered the main loser in this whole affair.
“He wrote bad checks to keep his outfitter and save time,” he noted. We are a long way from a case of greed like Vincent Lacroix embezzling funds from small savers. My customer rather lost his outfitter.”
The lawsuit also asks the court to order the recovery of the sums paid to the victims. The defense countered that Maxime De Varennes’ fortune was insufficient.
Judge Michel Boudreault will deliver his verdict on June 7th.