Jury deliberations have begun in the fraud trial of five men, including three former senior executives of the Ontario Provincial Police Association, a lawyer and prominent businessman.

After a 12-week trial, Superior Court Justice Kenneth Campbell concluded his three-and-a-half-day charge to the jury just after 4 p.m. Monday. The central issue in the case is the purchase, by the accused, of a travel agency in 2014 that they all say was done on behalf of the union’s 10,000 members. Prosecutors alleged the purchase was orchestrated, and concealed, for personal gain.

The RCMP laid fraud charges against James Christie, the president and CEO of the OPPA, Karl Walsh, the association’s chief administration officer, and vice-president Martin Bain in March 2015. Former Toronto police officer-turned-lawyer Andy McKay, and businessman Francis Chantiam were also charged and are allegedly parties to the offence.

In April 2014, the five men together planned to buy a travel company called Leximco, counting on the OPPA’s “captive market” which included corporate travel, event planning and leisure travel. The agency was rechristened and marketed as First Response Travel Group to OPPA members and other first responders.

But prosecutors Robert Hubbard and David Friesen argued the transaction was fraudulent because the three OPPA executives used their own money to finance the purchase, subsidized, in part, with a $30,000 kickback from an OPPA contract with McKay’s consulting firm.

“It is simply unbelievable that Mr. Walsh, Mr. Christie and Mr. Bain would use $68,000 of their personal funds to make an investment on behalf of the OPPA,” the Crown attorneys wrote in a summary of evidence provided to the court.

“Personal funds are used to make personal investments. The OPPA is not a charity. It has lots of money. It has thousands of members who all pay dues. It has millions of dollars of investments. It has big surpluses. The OPPA did not need a $68,000 handout.”

The trio also worked to keep the purchase hidden from other board members, as demonstrated by their switching to personal email accounts when discussing the purchase, the prosecution argued. They also asked jurors to consider why there was no documentation, or trust agreement, showing Bain, Christie and Walsh were holding their shares on behalf of the OPPA.

But defence lawyers for the accused men echoed their clients’ testimony. There was no “alleged fraud.” They committed no crimes, nor did any act dishonestly. While the purchase of a travel agency was admittedly “unorthodox,” it was entirely designed to ultimately benefit the membership, they argued.

Bain, Christie and Walsh were intensely loyal to the OPPA, worked tirelessly for the organization and were doing as they’d done in the past: trying to secure benefits for members. The three were expected to go out and develop business opportunities to bring to the rest of the board — and they had a record of success doing so, the lawyers argued.

The three one-time police officers decided to defer disclosure about the agency purchase to the board because they wanted to ensure it was running smoothly, the jury heard repeatedly. Their ownership was only temporarily confidential so the board wouldn’t hear about it “prematurely,” the defence argued.

The defence lawyers all argued about the good character of their clients who had spent their lives in policing and who did countless good works for the OPPA. Committing an alleged fraud was not in Christie’s DNA, said his lawyer, Julianna Greenspan.

The other OPPA board members who initially complained each had their own reasons for wanting the three executives removed, the jury heard.

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Undoubtedly, after so much “critical attention” has been focused on their communications, the men recognize that their “unorthodox plan” could have been better documented and executed, David Humphrey, McKay’s lawyer, told jurors during his closing address.

Prosecutors asked jurors to disregard a lot of the “good character” evidence they heard, saying what Bain, Christie and Walsh did was clearly acting “out of character.”