B.C. judge orders former Longshoremen union official to repay $1.69 million

VANCOUVER – A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered the former secretary-treasurer of a Metro Vancouver Longshoremen’s union to repay $1.69 million in misappropriated funds.

Justice Kenneth Affleck has also ordered two adult children of Robert Victor Eric Ford to each repay $2,000 that was deposited into their accounts.

Ford was the secretary-treasurer of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 502 from October 2003 and August 2012.

In September 2012, the union local and New Westminster Longshoremen’s Holding Society filed court action against Ford, alleging he misappropriated the funds and converted them to his own use.

Affleck has ruled in favour of the union, saying its local had no long-standing practices that would have allowed Ford to take the money for his own use.

But he says Ford was able to “perpetrate his dishonest scheme” because of the union local’s lax accounting practices.