Former Coquitlam mayor Jon Kingsbury was found guilty Friday in B.C. Supreme Court of impersonation with intent to gain advantage as well as forgery and fraud over $5,000.
The charges relate to an incident in the summer of 2008, when Kingsbury took a trailer belonging to his former business associate Jean Aussant from a Langley RV dealership.
Much of Justice Miriam Gropper's reasons for judgment focused on testimony Kingsbury gave concerning the signature he used to gain access to the trailer. She agreed with Crown prosecutor Brian McKinley's assertion that Kingsbury signed the name Jean Aussant on the work order so he could take the vehicle from the dealership.
"The signature on the back of the work order is not his usual signature," she said during her reasons for judgement. "The word after the J looks like it begins with an A and ends with a T."
But while Kingsbury was found guilty on three charges, he was found not guilty on the charge of theft over $5,000.
Gropper said Kingsbury believed, rightly or wrongly, that he had an ownership stake in the trailer and therefore was allowed to take it. Kingsbury asserted throughout his trial that he had loaned Aussant the $24,000 to purchase the trailer and that he was only trying to recoup some of the losses related to a soured business arrangement when he took the vehicle.
But the judge said that by allowing the staff at the RV dealership to believe he was Aussant and signing Aussant's signature on the work order, Kingsbury broke the law.
Kingsbury's one-week trial took place in February; the court is expected to set a date for sentencing next week.
Kingsbury was elected mayor of Coquitlam in 1998 after time spent as a city councillor and last ran for office in 2006, when he lost the mayor's race to Maxine Wilson.
gmckenna@tricitynews.com