House arrest for Kelowna man who worked while claiming EI

A 62-year-old Kelowna man who claimed $8,000 of unemployment insurance he wasn’t eligible for will now spend a few months under house arrest.

In 2019, Richard Peter Bigler made 10 separate claims for employment insurance throughout the year, always saying “no” when asked whether he’d been working.

“He claimed he had no earnings… and that he had no other money… (when) in fact he was working and receiving income,” federal prosecutor Russell Allsup told a Kelowna courtroom Monday, July 21.

The court heard Bigler earned $16,075 during the time he said he wasn’t working, and he claimed $8,114 in unemployment insurance.

It was five years later that he was criminally charged with making a false representation to claim benefits.

While it’s the first time he’s been charged, it’s not the first time he’d swindled unemployment insurance.

The court heard that between 2002 and 2016, he’d claimed more than $25,000 of unemployment insurance he wasn’t eligible for.

“You do not seem to have learnt a lesson,” BC Provincial Court Judge Monica McParland told the 62-year-old.

It’s unclear how much of the $25,000 Bigler had paid back, and none of the false claims had resulted in criminal charges. There was no explanation given as to why Bigler hadn’t been charged previously when claiming benefits he wasn’t supposed to have.

In 2024, Lake Country resident Stanley Virgint was convicted of claiming $19,000 in unemployment insurance while making a six-figure salary working in the oil fields. He’d also been caught nine times before being criminally charged.

The court heard how Bigler had previously been convicted for using a stolen credit card in 1997, and a few years later, he was jailed for two weeks for personation with intent to gain advantage. He had large gaps in his criminal record, but had again in 2013 been found guilty of personation with intent to gain advantage.

“They’re offences of dishonesty and fraud that are related,” the judge said.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he’d worked for CP Rail, and in the last few decades had worked in irrigation and landscaping. He has no children and had recently come out of a 15-year relationship.

Bigler told the court he wanted to apologize.

He pleaded guilty and lawyers in a joint submission put forward a $6,700 fine and one month of house arrest.

In Canada, judges largely have to accept the sentence put forward by lawyers in a joint submission, but Judge McParland didn’t seem impressed by what they were suggesting.

“I’m a bit surprised, given the history and given the number of instances,” the judge said. “I need some persuading.”

The judge pointed out the fine didn’t cover the total amount of unemployment insurance Bigler had claimed, and added as that was the case he should get more time under house arrest.

Defence lawyer Nelson Selamaj changed his submission, putting forward that Bigler should spend three months under 24-hour house arrest, and the Judge agreed.

Judge McParland also noted in her eight years on the bench that this was the first unemployment insurance case she’d dealt with.