Suspect pleads guilty in hoax call to Lynn Valley care home amid COVID-19 outbreak

The man accused of making a hoax phone call that caused panic at a North Vancouver long-term care home grappling with a COVID-19 outbreak has pleaded guilty.

Taymour Aghtai was charged with conveying false information with intent to injure or alarm in relation a phone call made in March last year to staff at the Lynn Valley Care Centre, one of B.C.’s first epicentres of the pandemic.

The BC Prosecution Service confirmed he pleaded guilty to that count in provincial court on Tuesday.

“We are confident that this individual will get the sentence fitting the negative impact they placed on our residents and staff by committing this crime,” said Lynn Valley Care Centre administrator Noori Shahkar in an emailed statement.

Shahkar also thanked the North Vancouver RCMP and Crown Counsel for their hard work on the case.

Early on the morning of March 8, 2020, the care home has said it received a call that appeared to originate from a health authority.

The caller told staff not to enter or exit the premises and to notify staff on the next shift that they shouldn’t come in to work.

“As a result, the fear caused by the caller made staff not to come to work in next coming shifts,” the BC Care Providers Association wrote to mark one year since the facility’s outbreak.

“The management team and remaining staff scrambled for the next 24 hours to serve meals or provide toileting assistance and attending to those with the most urgent needs.”

2:06 Charges laid in COVID-19 hoax at Lynn Valley care centre

North Vancouver RCMP arrested Aghtai and released him in July 2020.

He was charged in relation to the hoax phone call on Sept. 30 that year.

The outbreak infected a total of 76 staff and residents. Twenty people died, including the very first Canadian to die of complications from COVID-19.

A sentencing date is expected to be set on Jan. 6. Aghtai remains in custody on matters unrelated to the case.

– With files from Simon Little