In each “Behind the Scenes” segment, Village Media's Scott Sexsmith sits down with one of our local journalists to talk about the story behind the story.
These interviews are designed to help you better understand how our community-based reporters gather the information that lands in your local news feed. You can find more Behind the Scenes from reporter across Ontario here.
Today's spotlight is on OrilliaMatters.com's Greg McGrath-Goudie, whose story ''Only the beginning': Local contractor sentenced to 3 years for fraud' was published on Sep 3.
Below is the full story, in case you missed it.
Brechin-based contractor Scott Eisemann has been sentenced to three years in prison for fraud.
Between 2019 and 2020, Eisemann collected $125,000 from Hal Gaber to tear down a structure on his Oro-Medonte property and build a new home, but failed to deliver the promised work.
Justice A.M. Nichols announced the sentence at the Orillia Courthouse on Tuesday morning, bringing just one of 13 fraud-related charges against Eisemann to a close – each of which he will answer for at a later date.
In addition to his prison sentence, Eisemann has been ordered to pay a restitution order and fine in lieu of forfeiture totalling $125,000, over a 10-year period, and he has also been ordered not to contact Gaber.
Nichols’s decision is closer to the 3.5-year sentence sought by the Crown than the two-year sentence recommended by Eisemann’s defence, with Nichols pointing to various aggravating factors in Eisemann’s history.
Nichols highlighted the Gaber case is Eisemann’s sixth fraud conviction, in addition to previous assault convictions. He said the case did not arise from a “momentary lapse in judgment” on Eisemann’s part, as he collected funds in three separate instalments over the course of a year — including after he had filed a consumer proposal related to insolvency.
Eisemann’s most recent previous fraud conviction was in 2014, and Nichols explained it “would have been only shortly after completing that sentence that he began business with the Gabers,” noting Eisemann failed to repay previous restitution orders to victims in his previous fraud conviction.
Although Eisemann’s lawyer raised his anxiety, depression and previous substance abuse issues during their defence, Nichols noted Eisemann had never been formally diagnosed with any mental health conditions and that these issues did not factor into this particular case.
Following his sentence, Eisemann was handcuffed and escorted from the courtroom by OPP officers.
“I wish I could have taken a picture of it,” said Liz Saunders, one of the victims in the 12 remaining charges against Eisemann. “One of the nice things about getting this one under his belt is that it just adds to his history.”
While her own case has yet to come to a close, Saunders hopes Tuesday’s sentence will add weight to the additional charges Eisemann has yet to answer for.
“When our charges go to court, this is just another one against him,” she said. “We're just hoping that as each of our charges come up, it'll actually add to that – it'll be consecutive, not concurrent.”
Although he initially pled guilty to seven of the 13 charges against him in January, totalling over $300,000 in alleged fraud, Eisemann successfully rescinded his initial guilty plea for all but the Gaber case that he was sentenced for on Tuesday.
With the Gaber case resolved, Eisemann is scheduled to appear at a judicial pre-trial meeting on Sept. 6 before returning to court on Sept. 17 to answer for his remaining charges.
Kim Burt, a victim in one of Eisemann’s remaining charges, said he is satisfied with the sentence for the Gaber case, but hoped it’s only the beginning of his stay in prison.
“This is a start, only the beginning, I think, of a lengthy process that can keep him in (prison) as long as possible,” Burt said.
The weight of what Eisemann has done is much larger than the money lost in their dealings with him, Burt said, arguing that the money paid to Eisemann has, in some cases, been saved across lifetimes to pay for dreams that his victims had.
“That's what I see in these people. I see him taking legacies, dreams, memories,” Burt said. “It took these people 30, 40 years to save for that day, and he gets it in a year – like (Gaber) with the $125,000.”
