Patrick Kinlin

Patrick Kinlin went to Canada from the United States and started a business there. In January 2000, he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to five years in prison.

His company, Kinlin Financial Services, offered advice on investments. Patrick was always very kind and polite to his clients. They trusted him completely.

But Patrick was not really investing his clients’ money. He was stealing it and spending it on fast cars, boats, clothes, expensive meals, houses, travelling, and women. He was married at least five times.

Altogether, he stole $12.5 million. He used false financial documents to convince his clients that their money was safe. At his trial, he was ordered to pay the money back, but in fact he paid nothing.

Patrick stole from both rich people and poor people. Dorothy Hawkins was the daughter of one of his victims, Fred Baldwin. Ms Hawkins said Patrick stole $500,000 from her father, all his savings. She only found out what had happened when her father died and there wasn’t enough money to pay for his funeral.

After only a few months in jail, Patrick was allowed out on day parole. The police officer who arrested him was angry about this. He said the parole board was making a mistake and that Patrick would take the opportunity to escape and go back to the United States and wouldn’t be able to pay back any of the money he stole.

But Patrick didn’t try to escape. He stayed in Canada. In early March, 2001, seven months before he would have been eligible for full parole, he died of heart disease in the prison hospital in Kingston, Ontario.

At the time of his death, he and several other prisoners were being investigated by the police. They were suspected of trying to defraud the Canadian government by getting false identification on the Internet and using it to apply for old-age pension cheques. The police believed the prisoners were picking up the cheques while they were out of jail on day parole and depositing them in false bank accounts.