By Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The fourth person arrested in an alleged St. George-area copper wire ring has pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud.
Melanie Pirie, 47, of Deer Island, appeared by phone Monday in Saint John Provincial Court and entered a single guilty plea to fraud over $5,000. Pirie was set for a five-day trial starting Feb. 24 on four charges, including conspiracy to commit fraud, possession of property obtained by crime and laundering proceeds of crime, all of which she has pleaded not guilty to.
Pirie was one of four people arrested in August 2022 in relation to an alleged copper wire fraud ring that Cooke Aquaculture said resulted in $3.2 million in losses between 2012 and 2021. Patrick Brennan, 59, of Bonny River, was sentenced to three years in prison and a $100,000 fine in December 2023 and Leonard Totten, 51, of Seaside Drive in Back Bay, received a two-year conditional sentence in July after each pleaded guilty to fraud.
Andrew Peters, 77, of Highway 175 in Pennfield, received a two-year conditional sentence with eight months of house arrest and an $84,000 fine in December after guilty pleas to possessing stolen property and taking copper wire for resale.
In court Monday, defence lawyer Shanna Wicks indicated that Pirie was prepared to plead guilty, which the defendant confirmed. No facts were read at Monday’s hearing, and a sentencing date was set for April 9. The other three charges are set to be dropped after her sentencing.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Brennan was an equipment manager for Kelly Cove Salmon, a Cooke subsidiary between 2012 and 2021, when Kelly Cove Salmon made more than 1,500 purchases of copper wire, with Brennan approving 79.2 per cent of the invoices. Totten, also a Cooke employee, admitted to helping Brennan take some of the wire shipments to sell to Peters, owner of a salvage business, which Brennan allegedly used to buy drugs.
In 2021, Cooke notified the RCMP after noticing a rise in costs during an internal review, and police then gathered phone records, purchase records and statements from the accused, according to Brennan’s statement. At Peters’ sentencing, court heard that the scheme cost Cooke $3.2 million, including $2.8 million in copper wire as well as transportation costs. Peters is estimated to have sold the wire for between $1.2 million to $1.5 million, making a profit of about $250,000, according to Crown prosecutor Andrew Pollabauer.
A publication ban covers names of other individuals in Brennan’s agreed statement of facts.
In a victim impact statement at Brennan’s sentencing, Cooke CEO Glenn Cooke called it “a significant financial loss for the organization” that impacted construction projects, damaged its relationships with suppliers and potentially damaged its reputation in the Charlotte County community.
