‘I trusted them’: Vancouver Island woman alleges convicted fraudster took out $95K in loans in her name

Jason James Simmons-Trudeau holds up his licence in this photo he texted to Jen Hiltz. (Jen Hiltz)

This is part two of a CTV News investigation into the case of a notorious Vancouver Island problem tenant with a history of fraud convictions. Read part one here.

Among the people who reached out to CTV News after Nanaimo landlord Tony Ogbechie posted a warning about his former tenant Jason James Simmons-Trudeau on Facebook were Jen Hiltz and Christelle Bou Mitri.

Bou Mitri was Simmons-Trudeau’s landlord when he was given a conditional sentence after pleading guilty to charges of fraud over $5,000 and identity fraud in Quebec in 2017.

Hiltz is a Vancouver Island woman who Simmons-Trudeau befriended in 2021. She alleges he and his common-law wife Danielle Sickini stole her identity and took out $95,000 worth of loans in her name.

Both women say Simmons-Trudeau upended their lives, and both feel he has never faced appropriate consequences for his actions.

Multiple fraud convictions

Bou Mitri was Simmons-Trudeau’s landlord for four months at the start of 2017.

A family emergency had forced her to move in with her in-laws, and she hired a real estate agent to manage the process of marketing her family home on Rue Durham in the Montreal suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux as a fully furnished rental.

She told CTV News Simmons-Trudeau and Sickini passed a credit check and had positive references from former landlords, and “all seemed well.”

The couple moved in on New Year’s Day. When the real estate agent attempted to cash their first month’s rent cheque the following day, it bounced, showing insufficient funds, Bou Mitri said.

Per Quebec law, the landlord waited 21 days, then filed for an eviction. A hearing on the matter was set for March 2017.

As would be the case with their later tenancy disputes in B.C., the tenants did not attend the hearing. A decision from the Quebec housing authority available through the Canadian Legal Information Institute shows an administrative judge ordered the eviction, effective 11 days after the hearing.

Simmons-Trudeau sought a retraction of this decision, according to a subsequent document available on CanLII. Again, the tenants did not attend the hearing. Their retraction request was denied and the eviction was ordered for five days later.

In an email to CTV News explaining the situation, Bou Mitri said her tenants “wasted no time” packing up all of her furniture and appliances, which had been left in the furnished rental. The items that weren’t taken were “destroyed,” she said.

“The remaining furniture was so filthy and damaged that we had to pay for (the) municipality to haul it away,” Bou Mitri said. “The financial burden kept piling up – legal fees, utility bills left unpaid in my name … Financially crippled and emotionally drained, we had no choice. We put the house up for sale.”

She said her family has not been able to buy a home since.

“I still cry when I remember the house,” she said, noting that her children were born while she was living there.

While all of this was happening, but unbeknownst to Bou Mitri, Quebec court records show Simmons-Trudeau was facing legal consequences for criminal behaviour dating back to 2011.

Records show Simmons-Trudeau pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 and identity fraud in September 2016, less than three months before he and Sickini moved into Bou Mitri’s home.

In February 2017, while he was living there, he was given an 18-month conditional sentence for the crime, along with three years of probation and more than $50,000 in restitution orders requiring him to pay back the victim.

It was the second time Simmons-Trudeau had pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000. Records show he pleaded guilty to another count of the charge – along with one count of unauthorized use of credit card data – in October 2014. Those charges stemmed from a different incident that took place in 2011.

For those offences, he was given a 90-day prison sentence and two years of probation.

Despite her due diligence, Bou Mitri had no idea about Simmons-Trudeau’s prior convictions while he was living in her home.

Notably, the lease for the property lists Simmons-Trudeau’s name as “Jason Trudeau,” and Sickini’s name as “Daniela Sickini.”

Bou Mitri has no doubt that her tenant is the same man who would later be evicted from Tony Ogbechie’s house on Jingle Pot Road in Nanaimo, however, noting that his full name is listed on corporate documents for the company her former tenant was operating at the time.

That company, which was known at the time as IncorpExpress Inc., was dissolved in 2023 for non-compliance with the Canada Business Corporations Act, according to online records.

In an email to CTV News, Simmons-Trudeau acknowledged his tenancy at Rue Durham, but denied taking any furniture “whatsoever” from the home.

Oceanside Security and Patrol

Simmons-Trudeau’s tenancy application for Ogbechie’s Jingle Pot Road property listed his employer as Oceanside Security and his occupation as “owner.” His monthly income is listed as $16,000.

Paul Barham told CTV News he was Simmons-Trudeau’s “second in command” at Oceanside Security, serving as business development manager and field operations manager beginning in 2023.

Barham described Simmons-Trudeau as a “scam artist” who failed to pay his employees and the rent on Oceanside’s office space.

“I left when I realized every word he said was a lie,” Barham said in an email to CTV News.

He alleged that Simmons-Trudeau had created paperwork showing Barham owned a 10-per-cent stake in the company as a way to convince him to use his own credit to purchase a $60,000 pickup truck for the business.

Barham was unable to show CTV News a copy of the paperwork, alleging that Simmons-Trudeau had taken it. He did, however, share a copy of a repossession order for the vehicle, showing more than $77,000 owed.

For his part, Simmons-Trudeau acknowledged the truck purchase, but said it was Barham’s idea. He said his former employee wanted to start a “canine unit” at Oceanside and needed the truck to carry the dog.

“He suggested co-signing for the truck because the company was too new to pass finance,” Simmons-Trudeau said.

Along with two other employees, Barham filed a claim against Simmons-Trudeau in Nanaimo provincial court in August 2023.

Collectively, they claimed more than $33,000 in damages, most of it for unpaid wages and debt the plaintiffs allegedly incurred because they weren’t being paid.

The claim also alleged sexual harassment, “mental abuse,” and breach of contract.

Barham said the employees ended up dropping the case because they could not serve Simmons-Trudeau with the court paperwork. Thus, the allegations were never tested in court.

“We found it easier to go through Employment Standards BC and their mediation process,” Barham said. “We all got paid out, but it took six months and I lost almost everything because I couldn’t pay my bills and he was trashing my name within the business.”

Barham provided CTV News with a copy of the Employment Standards Branch investigation report dealing with his complaint.

In it, Simmons-Trudeau acknowledged firing Barham in July 2023 and withholding his last biweekly paycheque, allegedly because Barham “had not returned some employer owned property.”

Simmons-Trudeau agreed to pay Barham $2,597.48 as a result of the investigation, but the document indicates he sent three separate emails to investigators claiming he had sent Barham the payment. Barham did not receive the money until months later.

On Jan. 10 of this year, the Employment Standards Branch issued five penalties against Oceanside Security and Patrol, Inc. for violations of the provincial Employment Standards Act and its associated regulations.

The penalties are for violations of sections of the act governing deductions from workers' pay, overtime wages, production of records during Employment Standards investigations, timing of pay days and compensation for workers who are terminated.

Each penalty was $500, for a total of $2,500.

In his emails to CTV News, Simmons-Trudeau acknowledged that Oceanside Security has been evicted from its office space on two occasions for failing to pay its rent on time. He also acknowledged that his company owes outstanding wages to other employees.

“Like Paul, I plan to rectify that situation,” he said.

The SeaDoo incident

Jen Hiltz met Simmons-Trudeau in the summer of 2021, and the two became friends. They watched each other’s kids, and Hiltz rented space in Simmons-Trudeau’s garage to store the trailer she used for her food cart business.

At the time, Hiltz said, Simmons-Trudeau was starting a SeaDoo rental business called Vancouver Island Water Sports.

On Oct. 13, 2022, Hiltz received a shocking call while at work at London Drugs. The caller was from Prefera Finance, and was calling to demand payment on a nearly $50,000 loan that had been taken out in her name for the purchase of a pair of SeaDoos.

It was the first time Hiltz had heard anything about such a loan.

“I was so dumbfounded,” Hiltz said.

Simmons-Trudeau and Sickini happened to come into London Drugs around the same time, and Hiltz left work early to try to figure out what was happening.

The Prefera Finance representative emailed Hiltz the loan documentation. It showed an email address and two phone numbers that were not hers, and Sickini and her son were listed as personal references.

The document also included a void cheque for an RBC bank account Hiltz didn’t recognize. She said has never done any banking with RBC.

Simmons-Trudeau and Sickini accompanied Hiltz to a local RBC branch, where Hiltz showed the void cheque to the teller.

“She punched the number in and she said, ‘Well, it’s an active bank account,’ but she said, ‘It’s not your name on it,’” Hiltz said.

“Jason and Danielle are standing behind me and I said, ‘Let me guess, it’s in Jason Trudeau’s name.’ And she just kind of nods.”

The fake SkipTheDishes email

According to Hiltz, Simmons-Trudeau claimed he had listed her as an emergency contact on his insurance for his SeaDoos, but told her he didn’t know anything about the Prefera Finance loan or two other loans that were taken out in her name.

Hiltz believes she has figured out what happened.

In addition to the email address, phone numbers and void cheque, there were other pieces of information in the Prefera Finance loan application that appeared fraudulent.

A pay stub from London Drugs purporting to show Hiltz’s earnings for the pay period ending Aug. 14, 2022, was not real. It inflated her hours worked to full time, when in fact she was only working at the store a few hours a week. She showed CTV News her real pay stubs from the time period, which have a completely different format and show part-time hours.

Hiltz said Simmons-Trudeau allowed a friend of hers to search his computer for evidence that he, too, was a victim of the fraud, and the friend found a pay stub matching the format of the fake one from the Prefera Finance application, but in French and in Simmons-Trudeau’s name.

The document also includes photos of the front and back of Hiltz’s driver’s licence. The photo of the back is identical to one that Hiltz sent to [e-mail] on Aug. 19, 2022.

An email from that address with the subject line “Information Required” had been sent to Hiltz three days earlier. It purported to be from the SkipTheDishes “validation and compliance team,” and it asked for photos of the reverse side of the recipient’s driver’s licence, as well as “a clear selfie” of the recipient holding the front side of the licence.

Simmons-Trudeau had encouraged Hiltz to sign up to drive for SkipTheDishes as a way to earn extra money. He said he was doing so himself and had agreed to help her with her application. He had already scanned the front of her driver’s licence for her as part of that process before the Aug. 16 email.

The email had no graphics or clear SkipTheDishes branding on it, and it was filtered into Hiltz’s spam folder. But Simmons-Trudeau texted Hiltz on the day it was sent to inquire if she had received it.

“Crap, now Danielle and I can’t share an account,” reads a screenshot of some of the messages he sent to Hiltz.

“Everyone has to send them a selfie now holding their drivers (sic) permit. And they will start doing random checks … You didn’t get the email about it?”

Simmons-Trudeau continued to discuss the email with Hiltz over the next few days, even sending her his own selfie to demonstrate what SkipTheDishes purportedly wanted.

She sent the requested photos on Aug. 19, and the photo of the back of the driver’s licence showed up in the Prefera Finance application, which was filed four days later, on Aug. 23, 2022.

In the aftermath of her discovery of the loan, Hiltz recognized the licence photo and reached out to SkipTheDishes to inquire about the email that requested it.

“We have noticed that it is a scam email,” reads the company’s response, which Hiltz shared with CTV News.

“Thank you for bringing it up. It’s important to keep your Skip courier account and personal information secure.”

‘The ultimate betrayal’

Hiltz is convinced that Simmons-Trudeau created the fake SkipTheDishes email address as a way to get a photo of the back of her licence to submit with the Prefera Finance application.

She said that loan and the other two taken out in her name – a total of $95,000 – have all been marked as fraud and removed from her Equifax and TransUnion credit reports. It’s been more than a year since she received any collections calls or emails.

Thinking back to the initial shock of learning about the loans, she described Simmons-Trudeau’s alleged conduct as “the ultimate betrayal.”

“I trusted them,” she said, referring to Simmons-Trudeau and Sickini.

Hiltz also recalled fear, anger and frustration, as well as feeling alone and misunderstood.

She went to police, who opened an investigation, but ultimately declined to pursue charges in the matter.

Like Bou Mitri, Hiltz feels as though Simmons-Trudeau caused her significant harm and got away with it.

For his part, when asked about Hiltz’s allegations, Simmons-Trudeau made note of the police investigation.

“The story surrounding Jen Hiltz is that she needed someone to blame,” he said in an email to CTV News.

“I put myself in a position to help her signup for SkipTheDishes and regret it. The police investigated this two years ago and I was cleared. My jet skies (sic) were purchased without defrauding her.”

Simmons-Trudeau did not elaborate on the matter, and did not respond when CTV News requested documents – such as loan applications in his own name or a record of the transaction – confirming how he purchased the watercraft.

According to Hiltz, the investigating officer told her police “believe it’s fraud,” but said it appears better suited to being a civil case.

Nanaimo RCMP confirmed the investigation of Hiltz’s case was closed without charges and told CTV News the detachment has “no current criminal investigations” involving Simmons-Trudeau.

Hiltz has spoken to a lawyer and considered pursuing the matter civilly, but said she can’t afford to take time off from work to appear in court, if necessary, and doesn’t want to keep dedicating her free time to reliving one of the worst experiences she’s ever had.

With files from CTV News Montreal’s Joe Lofaro