BY KEITH LACEY
For the first time in more than three years, Pierre Montpellier experienced freedom Monday.
The former financial planner who bilked clients out of more than $5.3 million has been released from a Hamilton-area halfway house. Montpellier had lived there since the middle of October.
He still faces civil litigation from clients he stole from. No court dates have been set in the civil action he?s facing.
In April, Montpellier was given a 24-month penitentiary term on top of 30 months he spent in pre-trial custody at the Sudbury District Jail after his arrest in England in October 2001.
Montpellier served six months of his sentence at the minimum security Beaver Creek Institution in Gravenhurst.
The only restrictions imposed against him by the National Parole Board are to provide detailed financial records upon request and to stay out of trouble.
Montpellier already had numerous court orders imposed on him. He is prohibited from advising or working with people in any capacity that would give him access to financial records, and he is not allowed to work for any financial institution.
Montpellier was arrested after police tracked him down in a small town in England. Montpellier left Canada in late 1998 after police began asking questions. He told them he had a European backer who would come up with millions of dollars.
Montpellier pleaded guilty in April to stealing $5.37 million from 128 clients while he worked as a financial adviser between 1995 and 1998.
When it came to stealing, Montpellier was an equal opportunity con artist as it was revealed he stole from members of his extended family, close
friends, people dying of cancer, elderly and complete strangers. Clients included lawyers, accountants, professors, wealthy business owners and
retired miners.
Montpellier is believed to have spent the money on an extravagant lifestyle. He defence was paid by the taxpayer through legal aid.
In court it was revealed Montpellier spent more than $200,000 at one Sudbury clothing store. He regularly rented the penthouse suite at Toronto?s Four Seasons Hotel at $2,700 a night and had a seemingly endless supply of Dom Perignon champagne. He also used the stolen money to pay off credit cards and lines of credit, to buy a home on Ramsey Lake, and purchase or lease automobiles.
Montepellier pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000 and one count of theft over $5,000. He was originally changed with 151 counts of theft
and 151 counts of fraud, but the plea bargain agreed to involved 128 former clients.
