Want to live a life of crime? Don't expect any alimony when you get divorced.
A B.C. judge was faced with what he called an "extraordinary" case this year when he was asked to help divide assets and determine child and spousal support after the divorce of two long-time criminals.
The husband in the case is Shannon Daemore, an admitted cocaine dealer who has from time to time operated a bawdy house and an illegal after-hours club. Until his activities were stymied by the Canada Revenue Agency, he enjoyed a criminal career that spanned Alberta and B.C. and lasted more than 35 years.
In one particularly outrageous case, Daemore was caught offering to pay an undercover police officer $10,000 to kill a witness in his drug trial. He later turned to mortgage fraud to pay the bills and admitted that he "constructed his life so as to be below CRA's radar."
"His illegal activities have been so pervasive that he sometimes could not recall if he was involved in certain wrongful activity, but conceded he might have been. Being truthful or forthright has no meaning for him," Justice Peter Voith wrote in a decision last week.
But despite all his best efforts to strike it rich, Daemore declared bankruptcy in 2008 after tax agents caught up with him and starting garnishing his bank accounts and the money he inherited after the death of his mother.
The profits from his years of crime have now "dissipated," the judge said, and Daemore survives on Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan payments.
And so, 16 years after separating from wife Sita Von Windheim, Daemore filed divorce proceedings asking her to pay him spousal support.
Von Windheim's record isn't squeaky clean, either, although her criminal history isn't nearly as extensive as her ex-husband's. She admitted in court to committing credit card fraud and helping Daemore with his mortgage scheme and tax evasion.
She claimed she was abused and went along with Daemore's schemes because she was scared, but the judge said there was absolutely no evidence to prove that. Their eldest daughter described the relationship as happy and loving before it dissolved.
During the 1980's, Von Windheim didn't work and lived a lavish lifestyle in Vancouver's posh Shaughnessy neighbourhood as Daemore's drug money supported her and her young daughters.
"While a desire to have your children enjoy music and riding lessons is, in the abstract, laudable, very different considerations arise when such desires are financed by illegal activity," the judge wrote.
The pair eventually raised three children who would grow up to follow in their parents' footsteps, each taking part in some of their illicit schemes. Their two daughters shared rent proceeds from marijuana grow operations, and the elder woman, a computer wiz, helped Daemore fudge his bank and tax statements.
But while Daemore's misdeeds led him to fall on hard times, Von Windheim has seen considerable success in recent years, operating a business selling supplies to marijuana growers and grossing more than $500,000 annually.
Still, the judge denied Daemore the alimony he was seeking, ruling that the crook has had plenty of time since the break-up to find honest work and finding that his present troubles are not a result of his divorce.
"Mr. Daemore is an intelligent and educated man who has no interest in undertaking legitimate work which might provide him with a reasonable measure of financial security or self-sufficiency," Voith wrote.
"Instead, he is a criminal and a spendthrift. He has at all times ... chosen to gamble with his future self-sufficiency and has, in financial terms, lost that gamble."
The judge's decision also denied Von Windheim's bid for child support for the couple's 21-year-old son and her application for a restraining order against her ex-husband.
