Man who owes $7.6M in fines has driver's licence renewal blocked by B.C. panel

The B.C. Securities Commission logo in an undated file photo.

A B.C. man who owes more than $7 million in fines to the province's financial markets regulator has become the first person to face the loss of his driver's licence because of unpaid penalties related to securities fraud.

The executive director of the B.C. Securities Commission gave notice to ICBC last year that it should not issue or renew a driver's licence to Paul Oei, who was found in 2017 to have committed 63 acts of fraud against investors by misappropriating their money.

According to the 2017 decision, Oei and companies he controlled diverted a total of slightly more than $5 million of investor money away from the purposes for which they had told investors it would be used. 

He was ordered to pay approximately $3.1 million – representing the amount he had fraudulently obtained less roughly $2 million that had been repaid to investors – plus a $4.5 million administrative penalty to the BCSC.

The commission said in a news release Friday that Oei has not yet paid any portion of the roughly $7.6 million he owes.

Oei applied to the commission for a review of the executive director's decision to block his driver's licence. After a hearing, a panel of the BCSC announced Friday that it had decided to uphold the decision. 

The panel noted that this was the first time it had been asked to review such a decision since changes to the provincial Securities Act allowing the BCSC to block licence renewals came into effect last year. 

In seeking to quash the executive director's decision, Oei argued that he needs a driver's licence so he can serve as an emergency driver for his elderly father. He also argued that losing his licence would limit his ability to get a better job, and therefore his ability to pay his fines.

Oei told the panel that he cannot pay the commission anything at the moment, and submitted T4 slips showing earned income of roughly $7,000 in 2020 and $12,400 last year. He also referred the panel to a Supreme Court of Canada decision that struck down a similar law in Alberta and questioned whether the BCSC actually has the authority to prohibit him from maintaining a driver's licence.

On the question of legality, the panel rejected Oei's argument, noting that the Alberta law included a provision that would have maintained the province's right to withhold driver's licences even if debts had been discharged in a federal bankruptcy proceeding. That provision, according to the panel, was what led the federal court to strike down the Alberta law.

The B.C. law contains no such provision.

As for Oei's other arguments, the panel agreed with the executive director that inconvenience "is not (a) sufficient reason to not issue the notice to ICBC" blocking Oei from receiving a licence.

"Inconvenience is the expected outcome of the statutory provisions," the panel wrote, summarizing the executive director's argument.

"The purpose of those provisions is to provide to the executive director a mechanism to assist with financial collections. It is in the public interest to give effect to those provisions."

The panel also made note of the fact that Oei would not have to pay the money he owes in full to restore his driving privileges. The Securities Act allows the executive director to rescind a direction to ICBC at his discretion upon entering into a payment agreement with a person who owes the BCSC money.

"The applicant has neither paid any part of the very significant amounts that remain outstanding nor made any proposal for a payment plan," the panel wrote.

"We note that the applicant continues to show no remorse or responsibility for his role in the fraud and misappropriation in this matter and, through his own acts and words, makes clear that he has failed to accept the original findings and decision of the panel."

Oei told the panel he does not currently own a car. During the time that he was involved in raising the funds from the investors, Oei drove a Bentley, according to the commission's original decision against him.