On Friday, Crown said there isn’t a reasonable prospect of conviction and subsequently has dropped all charges against Curtis Ping, an RCMP officer alleged to have defrauded the Fort Liard, N.W.T., while he was detachment commander there.
Ping and his wife were facing multiple counts of fraud over $5,000 during their time in Fort Liard, N.W.T.
“Following the conclusion of the preliminary inquiry and a careful review of the file, the Crown was no longer satisfied that there was a reasonable prospect of conviction,” a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said in an email. “Accordingly, a stay of proceedings was entered.”
Cpl. Curtis Ping faced two counts of fraud over $5,000 for allegedly defrauding the RCMP between Oct. 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019.
Along with the fraud charges, he was also charged with breach of trust for allegedly signing fraudulent time sheets in connection with his duties as RCMP detachment commander in Fort Liard.
In July 2020, The N.W.T. RCMP announced the charges publicly. It suspended Ping with pay and launched its own internal code of conduct investigation.
Darlene Ping was charged with:
- two counts of fraud over $5,000,
- fraud altered document; and,
- falsifying employment record.
In May, the case was moved to Alberta from the N.W.T. due to the close relationship between prosecutors and police in the territory.
The Pings were scheduled to be tried in the Court of the Queen’s Bench of Alberta in December.
This article was originally sourced by www.cbc.ca.
