Pigeon king abandons appeal

Thursday, June 5, 2014

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

The man behind a pigeon breeding scam has decided not to appeal his conviction for fraud over $5,000, or his subsequent sentencing.

Arlan Galbraith, 66, former owner of the Waterloo-based Pigeon King International, was convicted in December 2013. On March 18, Justice G.E. Taylor, who presided over Galbraith’s lengthy trial, sentenced the feather fraudster to seven years plus three and a half months in federal prison.

Days later, on March 25, Galbraith applied for leave to appeal both the conviction and sentence but on Monday, he abandoned that appeal, court records show.

Toronto defence lawyer David North, who represented Galbraith at his sentencing hearing, said he was not involved in Galbraith’s efforts to appeal. A spokesperson at the Court of Appeal said Galbraith had filed the appeal on his own.

Crown attorney Lynn Robinson, one of those involved in prosecuting the case, could not be reached for comment.

Assistant Crown attorney Anita Etheridge, who was also involved in prosecuting the case, said she did not know the grounds on which Galbraith’s appeal had been based. “I did not see any of the (appeal application) documents,” she says, explaining they had been filed with the Court of Appeal for Ontario in Toronto and she was not involved in the appeal.

In his sentencing comments, Taylor found there “never was an end market of any kind” for the pigeons Galbraith bred by selling breeding pairs to investors and buying back the offspring. When the business was declared bankrupt in 2008, Galbraith owed about $356 million. Had the business continued, there would not have been “enough purchasers in the world” to buy all of his production, Taylor said. He called the scheme “a pyramid.”

According to the Parole Board of Canada website, offenders usually must serve the lesser of either one third of their sentence or seven years of imprisonment before becoming eligible for full parole. Six months before they’re eligible for parole, federal offenders become eligible for day parole. BF