The convicted fraud artist accused of breaching hundreds of Port Mann Bridge users’ personal information has already been deported from Canada three times, CTV News has learned.
Fils Pierre Gog was arrested in September after authorities learned 271 people who signed up for the new TReO tolling stickers may have had their accounts compromised.
That number has since grown to 350.
The Transportation Investment Corporation said the customers were asked for their home address, license plate number and credit card number by an employee who did not have permission to request it.
“It was observed [the employee] was not authorized to handle those accounts,” CEO Mike Proudfoot told CTV News.
“This individual is not who he claimed to be when he was hired,” he added.
Gog was fired, arrested and charged with personation and ID theft.
Court documents allege Gog, a 39-year-old Cameroon native, had been fraudulently operating under the name Armand Mossi.
The suspect, whose fraud convictions date back to 2007, has also been deported three times since 2008 – but somehow continues to gain access to the Canada, only to commit crimes and be kicked out again.
Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland says Canada’s policies are “second-rate,” and that new technology is needed to keep people like Gog from re-entering the country.
“What’s missing is facial recognition biometric software that automatically flags the traveler to the attention of authorities,” Kurland said. “Never mind the passport; the face is the giveaway.”
Immigration Minister Jason Kenny says Gog’s case exposes an outrageous failure of the system, and he promises a high-tech crackdown is coming to border security next year.
“Starting with high risk countries, and eventually countries from which we require visas, applicants coming to Canada will have to show us their fingerprints and a digital photo to check against our criminal watch list,” Kenny said.
The fingerprints would also be compared to U.S. criminal records, he added.
“I think we will be able to just about eliminate these kind of what we call ‘yo-yo’ criminals,” Kenny said. “We kick them out and they come right back in.”
Customers potentially affected by the security breach have been warned to monitor their credit card bills for any fraud.
The Transportation Investment Corporation has confirmed to CTV News police have already been informed about some suspicious transactions.
Gog, whose last conviction for defrauding the Royal Bank of Canada earned him a year in jail, remains in custody. He is scheduled to appear in court again in November.
With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Mi-Jung Lee
If you have a story for CTV News’ The Investigators, email investigate@ctv.ca or call 604-609-6333
