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Second trial delayed in Langley road building fraud

The bookkeeper of a defunct company is awaiting his court date.
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The trial of the co-accused in a $6 million bank fraud case has been delayed again, more than two years after charges were first filed.

Kirk Roberts is facing a charge of fraud over $5,000. Jury selection was to have taken place Thursday, Nov. 2 in New Westminster and the trial had been scheduled for Nov. 20.

However, Roberts’ lawyer was recently appointed as a judge.

A fix date hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 16 in a New Westminster courtroom to set a new trial date.

Roberts is one of two Langley and Surrey area men who were charged with fraud after Aggressive Roadbuilders collapsed almost a decade ago.

Roberts was the company’s controller-bookkeeper at the time.

On Monday, a judge handed a three and a half year sentence to Matthew Brooks, the Langley man who had been the owner of Aggressive.

Brooks pleaded guilty earlier this year. As part of his plea, he acknowledged that Aggressive gave falsified financial documents to Scotiabank for a year and a half, inflating their assets to receive a $7 million line of credit.

Just over $6 million vanished, apparently put into “other investments” that did not pay off.

When Scotiabank became suspicious, they looked into Aggressive and the scheme collapsed in June of 2008.

Aggressive went bankrupt. An RCMP Commercial Crime investigation would eventually lead to charges in 2014.

While Brooks has been out of the roadbuilding business for years now, and is all but destitute according to his lawyer, Roberts has continued working.

His firm Blackrete Paving has worked for cities such as Surrey, where a 2016 municipal report showed the firm was contracted for $751,000 in road milling and paving.



Matthew Claxton

About the Author: Matthew Claxton

Raised in Langley, as a journalist today I focus on local politics, crime and homelessness.
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