A Winnipeg man has been convicted of multiple counts of defrauding seniors. Now, an elderly woman who claims she was victimized by the same man is still waiting for justice to be done.
Midge Bergman enjoys spending summer days sitting in front of her home, and that's what she was doing the day she says she fell victim to a driveway scam.
"I've always looked after things, no problem whatsoever, and I've never got myself into trouble," said Bergman.
Bergman says two men approached her and said they could patch up her driveway and apply a new topcoat. She knew the driveway needed repairs and agreed they could do it.
Halfway through the job, though, the men demanded a cheque for $600 to finish it. She made it payable to Barry Scully.
“I wrote that cheque, and while I'm writing it, I thought, ‘This is really stupid. I've never paid more than a hundred dollars.’"
She said the men rushed the job and the driveway looked worse than when they began. In the moments after the men left, she got angry and called the credit union to put a stop payment order on the cheque, but it was too late.
"She says, ‘You're a little late. He was here already.’ In 20 minutes. He knew what was going to happen, because he knew it was a wrong amount."
In May, a judge gave Scully a two-year conditional sentence and ordered him to repay $6,600 to 10 victims for similar driveway scams. Bergman was not one of them.
"There is nothing worse than taking advantage of a senior citizen,” said Bergman’s daughter, Wendy Penner.“Truly, these are people who have been raised in an entirely different environment. You trusted people. You could take a man at his word. His handshake meant something."
Bergman did manage to track down Scully's family and says they sent her a money order for $300, half the amount she feels she's owed.
Bergman says she plans to raise the issue with the Morden police service again, and she hopes other victims will step forward as well.
- With a report by Ben Miljure
