On July 28, 2016, Jesse Cole, a prolific offender was sentenced for his role in an planned, pre-meditated and sophisticated fraud on Steinbach area residents.
Police say that using the alias of Jesse Sinclair, Cole used on-line dating sites to locate and lure un-suspecting victims into a dating relationship. Once in the relationship, Cole conducted an on ongoing scam which involved fictitious real estate transactions, credit card fraud and debit card fraud. During the investigation it was learned that Cole had been committing these offences across Canada for a number of years.
RCMP report that 32-year-old Jesse Cole of no fixed address, had previously been charged with 30 fraud related offences by the Steinbach General Investigation section dating back to November 2015. Cole was convicted of one count of fraud over $5,000, for which he was sentenced to four years in jail. Cole was also convicted of two counts of fraud under $5,000, fraudulent possession of credit card data and failing to comply with a probation order. Cole was sentenced to an additional 18 months custody on these charges to be served concurrently with the four years.
At the time of his arrest, Cole was wanted for similar crimes in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. These charges remain before the courts.
