Disbarred lawyer gets 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to forgery

Judge Timothy Preston said a strong message must be sent when he handed a former lawyer a sentence of 90 days in jail on Monday.

David Bradley, who was disbarred in 2016, will serve his time on weekends. In January, he pleaded guilty to forging court documents.

"This type of behaviour, forgery, by a lawyer must never be tolerated," said Preston.

Bradley was charged in 2017 with eight offences including attempting to obstruct justice, forgery, fraud, and theft. Seven of the eight charges were stayed when he pleaded guilty.

• Disbarred Winnipeg lawyer faces criminal charges
• Winnipeg lawyer David Bradley disbarred

The forgery charge dates back to 2005 when Bradley was first hired by Govind Thawani, who is the managing director of Sterling O and G International Corporation.

Thawani was taking a former client to court after not being paid approximately $380,000 for building a house in Lindenwoods.

Court heard Bradley filed a statement of claim in Court of Queen's Bench in 2006, but not much happened with the case for four years.

"Mr. Bradley started lying to his client," said Crown attorney Peter Edgett.

"[He said] the other side was dragging his feet." 

Edgett said in court that in 2010 Bradley told his client the case had gone before a judge, when it hadn't. Court heard Bradley gave Thawani legal documents, which he said had been signed by the judge, however those documents were forged by Bradley.

This continued into 2011 when Thawani asked Bradley to file an appeal, which sparked more lies.

Thawani found out by chance that his lawyer had been lying to him when he was at the courthouse looking up another matter and asked the clerk to check on his appeal case, which was not in the system.

"Mr. Thawani refused to fire him," said Bradley's lawyer, Scott Newman. "Despite Mr. Bradley's offer to get off the matter and find a different lawyer." 

Bradley's involvement with Thawani ended in 2012, when Thawani decided to represent himself.

'Very sorry'

Bradley's sentencing hearing began on April 17, but was put over to Monday because of time constraints. 

"I'm not here to make excuses," he said last week. "I did what I did and I'm very sorry for it."

Court heard Bradley underwent two years of counselling and was assessed by a psychologist prior to sentencing. 

Judge Preston pointed out that the psychologist's report said that Bradley had a tendency to downplay problems. He was deemed as low risk to re-offend.

Bradley also offered an apology to Thawani, who read a victim impact statement in court.

"As an emotional impact I lost faith in the justice system," Thawani said last week. "At times I cried, I screamed out, I can't sleep."

Thawani said his business has suffered since he hired Bradley because he has not recouped the hundreds of thousands of dollars he said he was owed for the Lindenwoods build.

"This betrayal has been beyond devastating," he said.

The 54-year-old will continue to work while he serves his 90-day sentence. After being disbarred, he was hired to work for Thawani's brother. Bradley told the judge he does not deal with money in his new role, just supervises staff.