Canadian Man Loses Fight to Recover $1M Stash
A Canadian man, Marcel Breton, has lost a 16-year court battle to reclaim over C$1.2 million seized from his home in 2009
A Canadian man has lost a 16-year legal battle to recover more than C$1.2 million (£651,000) in cash seized from his home.
Police discovered a large sum of money hidden in various locations around Marcel Breton's northwestern Ontario home during a 2009 search for an illegal gun and various drugs.
Breton was convicted of several crimes but was acquitted at a retrial after arguing that the search of his property was unlawful.
But earlier this week, an Ontario appeals court upheld a 2023 ruling that most of the seized money should go to the Canadian government, ending his hopes of getting his money back.
The trial judge had concluded that Breton did not legally possess the cash found near his property. Police found bundles of money totaling C$1,235,620 buried under his garage, C$32,000 elsewhere in the garage, and C$15,000 in the under-floor heating ducts of his living room.
Notably, the trial judge noted that "it is strange for an ordinary person to find so much money buried in a tub under their property," that the most common denomination was C$20—an amount typically associated with drug dealing—and that the cash was found near drugs and drug paraphernalia.
The judge noted that Breton also did not report any income to the revenue agency between 2001 and 2008.
But the appeals court upheld the decision to return the $15,000 found inside a vent in his home, as the judge could not rule out that it was obtained legally because it was not in the same denomination as the cash found in the garage.
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