It has been two years plus a day since a group of Sudburians gathered downtown to voice their frustration with a contractor who had allegedly bilked them out of thousands of dollars.
The contractor in question is Dave Murray, owner of EcoLife Home Improvements, and his 15-day trial for 45 counts of fraud began March 8.
Murray is being represented by Elliot Lake defense lawyer Antoine-Rene Fabris and there are almost 40 witnesses in the case. The trial runs from March 8 to March 11, then resumes March 22-26 and March 29-30, April 1 and May 3, 4 and 6.
Murray was first arrested and charged in May 2019 with 20 counts of fraud over $5,000 and three counts of fraud under $5,000 for taking deposits for work and never accomplishing the work promised.
In November 2019, Murray was arrested and charged with another 22 counts of fraud, bringing the total to 45 charges.
In speaking with Sudbury.com in April 2019, Murray maintained that the province's cancellation of the GreenON rebate program is to blame for unfinished work. The program offered customers rebates for installing energy-efficient windows, doors and insulation in their homes.
Murray indicated that the cancellation of the program left him with a backlog of jobs and a timeline to complete them that made his job next to impossible.
The months that followed saw Murray charged for numerous counts of fraud on two separate occasions, having his business licenses revoked by the city of Greater Sudbury and a lengthy court process spanning back to July, 2019.
We have compiled the noteworthy points over the course of the past two years and turned them into this infographic to get yourself up to speed on the matter as the trial gets underway.
