BARRIE

A Provincial Court judge questioned a decision by the Barrie Crown attorney to withdraw 26 counterfeit money charges against a Brampton man so he wouldn’t be deported.

Patrick Bentley, 29, who has a criminal record for robbery, theft and assault, had all 26 counts of uttering counterfeit money dropped last June because a conviction would have had him sent back to Jamaica, court heard. During Bentley’s bail hearing, the Crown said organized crime was suspected.

Bentley’s wife, Beth-Ann Gosling, 29, was sentenced to one month in jail Wednesday for the same offences.

Gosling was jointly charged with Bentley but the Crown wrapped up her 26 charges into one single count.

They were arrested in Barrie last March after police had them under surveillance. Bentley would wait in a getaway van with their three young children while Gosling, who is on welfare and expecting another baby, would go into stores to buy items with fake $100 bills and get the change.

They were pulled over in their van after leaving the Bayfield Mall and caught with $710 cash and several prepaid credit cards.

For months, the couple pulled the same stunt in stores in Barrie, Bolton, Bradford, Newmarket, Markham, Beeton and Brampton, court heard.

“Uttering counterfeit money is a serious offence that goes right to the heart of the economic stability in Canada,” Justice James Crawford said. “I can only guess at the total amount.”

He also called Gosling “manipulative” after she lied and told the judge she was breastfeeding to get out of jail.

The judge expressed concern when he learned the Crown dropped Bentley’s charges in another court.

“The Crown identified immigration consequences if he were convicted on the utter counterfeit charges,” Crawford said. “Perhaps this is a lesson on the importance of keeping cases together … isolation leaves the system open to issues of fairness.”

Gosling’s defence lawyer, Chuck Syme, insisted that his client should not go to jail because the Crown decided to drop charges on the same crimes against Bentley.

“You can’t let the guy walk because he’s Jamaican and send my client, a mother of four, to jail,” Syme said outside of court.

The Crown asked the judge to seal the written submissions made by Syme but the judge said a sealing would be “a clear violation of the open court principal.”

The court clerk, however, denied media access to the written submissions.