Former CamBay housing manager fraud charge moved to April

Jim Peckham, a former housing association manager in the public housing-starved community of Cambridge Bay, faces a charge of fraud of more than $100,000 at the association. (FILE PHOTO)

A former Cambridge Bay housing association manager accused of fraud will appear in court April 3 in Cambridge Bay after his case was pushed forward again during last week’s circuit court session.

Jim Peckham, 59, is accused of fraud in excess $5,000.

A court document obtained by Nunatsiaq News alleges that “between February 2012 and May 2014 in Cambridge Bay he defrauded the housing authority of $133,500 by transferring company money to a personally issued credit card.”

The Crown is seeking a conviction under Sec. 380 (1) of the Criminal Code, which deals with “every one who, by deceit, falsehood or other fraudulent means, whether or not it is a false pretense within the meaning of this Act, defrauds the public or any person, whether ascertained or not, of any property, money or valuable security or any service.”

As an indictable offence, a conviction on a fraud greater than $5,000 and under $1 million, carries a prison term not exceeding 14 years.

Peckham’s case was first heard last December in Cambridge Bay and was to continue Jan. 8. Now it’s been rescheduled to April 3 in Cambridge Bay.

In November 2016, the Nunavut RCMP said Peckham is “formally of Cambridge Bay.”

People in the western Nunavut community of roughly 1,700 say Peckham left town in 2014 to take a housing-related job in Iqaluit.

The Cambridge Bay RCMP started its investigation in December 2015 after an audit at the Cambridge Bay Housing Association revealed “a significant amount in unauthorized funds” had been spent over several years.

In 2011, police also investigated allegations of theft at the housing association—then authority—which had also run a large deficit.