Crown withdraws charges against beef marketers

by BRIAN LOCKHART

A beef producer left out of pocket after the failure of a Markdale area beef marketing venture said he was surprised and disappointed the Crown withdrew charges against the venture’s operators.

“Justice has not been done,” said James McKinlay, a Ravenna area beef farmer who estimated he’s owed more than $18,000 for cattle sold to the former All County Feed and Grain Ltd. “The police did excellent detective work, very dedicated. We felt we had a strong legitimate case.”

The Crown withdrew charges this month against Mark Kuglin of Meaford and Darryl Williams of Chatsworth Township when it was determined “there was no longer a reasonable prospect of conviction.”

The two men were charged on Aug. 6, 2009 after an investigation by Grey County OPP. Each faced 13 fraud charges.

According to the court transcript “the Crown is of the view that there is not enough evidence to establish that the accuseds’ transactions with the complainants were of a fraudulent nature.”

“I don’t want to comment right now,” Kuglin said Friday. “I’m just trying to get through things.”

Kuglin said he was a minor stakeholder in the operation.

Williams, who was listed as All County’s president, secretary and treasurer, did not respond to a request for an interview by press time.

All County Feed and Grain and its marketing arm, Grey-Bruce Beef Marketing Ltd., planned to sell locally produced beef to Ontario outlets. It promised producers big prices for cattle raised free of antibiotics and growth hormones.

In 2009, Kuglin told Better Farming the venture ran into trouble in the summer of 2008. Customers receiving a big shipment of meat intended for festivals in Ottawa refused to pay for it in full, he said.

The company was buying up to 30 head of cattle per week before things went sour.

Fifteen producer claims to the Ontario Beef Cattle Financial Protection Program totaled $528,769.68. But the farmers found out they were not eligible for compensation from the program. The provincially administered program licenses cattle dealers and maintains a financial protection fund that compensates producers for most of their losses when a licensed dealer defaults on payment.
 
“We accepted terms outside of what was outlined in the legislation,” McKinlay explained.

The program requires beef producers to paid within 48 hours of the grading of the cattle, but the farmers involved with All County “agreed to accept payment in three weeks,” because it was a start-up company, McKinlay said.

McKinlay questioned the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ accuracy when doing a financial analysis of All County, a requirement when issuing a license to buy cattle.

The company’s license was suspended in September 2008 “but they continued to purchase cattle right up to December of that year,” McKinlay said.

Even though Crown charges have been withdrawn, there are other options to try to recoup the lost revenue. McKinlay says for his part, this is water under the bridge.

There are no plans for the beef farmers as a group to seek compensation through civil litigation, he said. BF