New Brunswick Fraud Lawyers

A New Brunswick fraud lawyer usually meets the file long before the arrest. An employer’s audit, a bank’s flag on an account, or a complaint about an online sale is reviewed by an investigator for weeks, and the first the accused hears of it is a call asking for an interview. Section 380 of the Criminal Code covers the charge, and over $5,000 it is indictable with a fourteen year maximum. This firm defends both sides of that line, from the Provincial Court to the Court of King’s Bench.

The Interview Request Is the Start of the Defence, Not a Formality

By the time the police call, the paper case is assembled. The interview exists to fill its gaps, and anything said in it becomes evidence. The interview is voluntary for someone not under arrest, and declining it is not obstruction. Get advice first, then decide. That choice shapes more fraud files than anything that happens later in court.

Fraud Over $5,000 Opens an Election to the Court of King’s Bench

Summary charges and most hybrid fraud stay in the Provincial Court of New Brunswick. Fraud over $5,000 gives the accused an election: Provincial Court, Court of King’s Bench judge alone, or King’s Bench with a jury. The election is a strategic decision made after disclosure is reviewed, not at the first appearance.

The Crown Must Prove Dishonesty, Not a Failed Deal

New Brunswick’s fraud caseload is full of files that are really civil disputes. A renovation deposit spent before the work stopped. A marketplace sale that failed. A joint account drawn down during a separation. The Crown must prove a deceitful act and knowledge of the risk it created, and where the truth is a business that failed or a relationship that ended, the criminal charge should not survive.

Alternative Measures Can End an Eligible First Charge Without a Conviction

New Brunswick Crown policy allows adult alternative measures for eligible first offences. The charge is held while conditions such as repayment, an apology or community hours are completed, then withdrawn, leaving no conviction. Where the program is refused, a conditional or absolute discharge after a plea also avoids a criminal record. The New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission provides criminal duty counsel and certificate coverage for those who qualify.

Employers, Regulators and Border Officials All Weigh a Fraud Conviction

Employers that require bonding, professional regulators, and immigration and border officials each ask about it, and each treats fraud as worse than its sentence. Early restitution, offered before sentencing, is the strongest mitigation there is, and it is also what makes alternative measures and discharges realistic. A record suspension is available years after a conviction, but it cannot restore the bonded job or the licence lost in the meantime. The realistic time to protect those things is at the charge stage, before any plea is entered, and that is where the work is concentrated.

The Case Follows a Set Sequence After the Charge Is Laid

The accused is released on an undertaking or summoned, usually with a condition of no contact with the complainant and, in workplace files, no attendance at the workplace. The first appearance in Provincial Court is administrative, and no one testifies at it. Disclosure follows, and in a fraud file it is the case: the statements, the banking records and the audit. Elections, resolution discussions and any alternative measures request all wait until that disclosure has been read, because until then nobody on the defence side actually knows what the Crown can prove. Early statements and early pleas cost more than waiting for the disclosure to be read.

My Employer Says It Will Drop the Charge If I Repay. Can It?

No. The Crown controls the charge, not the employer. Repayment still helps, because it grounds a request for alternative measures or a discharge, but no private deal ends a prosecution.

Do I Need a New Brunswick Fraud Lawyer for Fraud Under $5,000?

Yes, because the small charge carries the same word on the record as the large one. The point of counsel on a first small fraud is to keep any conviction from existing at all.

The firm’s overview of the charge is at fraud lawyers, and the neighbouring charge at New Brunswick theft lawyers. Contact the firm before the interview, not after.