A Newfoundland man has lost his BMW after lending it to a man arrested on cocaine possession and other charges.
Judge David Orr ordered that David Woolridge must forfeit the luxury car, saying Woolridge either knew his neighbour in St. John’s, N.L., was using it for his alleged drug dealings – or was “wilfully blind” to the fact.
Police had stopped the neighbour, Gerald Grouchy, on July 6, 2016, and arrested him for possession for the purpose of trafficking of cocaine and several weapons offences.
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In the car, police found two ounces of cocaine, more than $63,000 in cash, scales and two unidentified pills.
Woolridge, a used car dealer, testified he had lent Grouchy the BMW just before the arrest, and he had no idea Grouchy was a drug dealer.
The Crown applied for forfeiture of the BMW and the provincial court judge said in a recent ruling that Woolridge failed to establish that he should get it back.
The judge said Woolridge, who was not charged, had exchanged multiple texts and phone calls with Grouchy both before and after the arrest, and the two were seen together several times.
Woolridge was caught on police wiretap discussing search warrant documents with Grouchy, and offering to help identify the informants who had spoken to police.
But Woolridge told the judge at a forfeiture hearing that was just the kind of thing he would do for people, because he was known to be knowledgeable and people often turned to him for help with paperwork.
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The judge didn’t buy it.
“Mr. Woolridge has failed to establish an appearance of lack of complicity,” said Orr in his ruling. “I did not find his evidence persuasive.”
Orr said the loan of the BMW had none of the usual documentation, and Woolridge’s reaction to its seizure was “unusual.”
“It would seem unlikely that someone who was previously completely unaware of another person’s trafficking activity that had resulted in the seizure of their vehicle would then continue to associate and deal with that person.”