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Suspended Toronto cop Robert Konashewych and his self-described “sex slave” former girlfriend have been found guilty of defrauding an incompetent man’s estate of $834,000.
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Konashewych can now wave that inheritance, and likely his police salary, goodbye, at least for the near future. An appeal is likely.
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It took the jury less than a day to convict Konashewych, 39, and former civil servant Adellene Balgobin, 36, who was the senior client representative at the Ontario Public Guardian and Trustee in charge of the financial affairs of Heinz Sommerfeld, who died in 2017 at 77. Both were found guilty of fraud over $5,000 and Balgobin was also convicted of breach of trust.
The OPGT believed Sommerfeld didn’t have a will — none had been located when the former highway draughtsman was placed into care in 2008 suffering from Alzheimer’s. But shortly after his death at a Mississauga nursing home, Konashewych left a voicemail that was transferred to Balgobin’s line at the public guardian’s office saying that not only did he have a will dated from 2006 but he had been named the executor and sole beneficiary.
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Konashewych said he’s befriended the recluse in 2005 when he was 22 and working security at Woodbine racetrack.
The couple argued it was a coincidence, but prosecutors Peter Scrutton and Sam Walker told the jury the pair were in cahoots, with Balgobin likely providing examples of Sommerfeld’s signature to Konashewych from documents she had in her file so that it could be forged on the will.
Jurors were also told the two witnesses to the will couldn’t be found and their names don’t appear in any government database.
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The lovers almost got away with the scheme except Konashewych had failed to redirect his mail after inheriting the windfall and then breaking off with his partner of seven years, Candice Dixon. When Dixon received letters at their condo addressed to the Sommerfeld estate in care of her ex — one of which also mentioned his mistress Balgobin — she suspected the fraud and went to police.
The estate will now revert to his next of kin, half-brother Peter Stelter, 76, who had lost contact with Sommerfeld after 2004.
The couple are back in court for sentencing on Oct. 12.
mmandel@postmedia.com
