| Aug 21, 2019


The trial of Jessica Villas on 2 charges of fraud over $5,000 continued in Sharbot Lake on Monday, as part of the once a monthly court proceedings in the Kingston satellite court.

The first day of the trial took place in June, and  included testimony from the OPP Constable who investigated the case, Lori Lobiniwich, as well as  Penny Hill. David Hill, a property developer on Norcan Lake, which is located at the far northeast corner of the township of North Frontenac, near Calabogie, was the only witness to testify on this day.

Hill, who described himself as the President, but not the owner, of both the Canonto Lodge and the Canalodge corporation, met Gulio (aka Gipse) and Jessica Villas late in the summer or early in the fall of 2013. At that time, a dispute between Hill and some of the property owners in a subdivision he had developed, was an active issue before North Frontenac Council.

(There was a report on North Frontenac Council proceedings regarding Mr. Hill and his Norcan Lake developments in the Frontenac News on August 12, 2013 and other reports before and after that date)

According to Hill, Gipse and Jessica Villas arrived at his door un-announced, in an upscale vehicle. They proceeded to tell Hill and his wife that they were interested in purchasing a number of lots that Hill controlled on Norcan Lake.

“I told my wife that this could be the solution to all of our financial problems,” Hill told the court on Monday.

Thus began a saga that played out over three years, Hill told the court, resulting in payments by Hill to both Jessica and Gypsy Villas totaling over $60,000, in addition to $35,000 in free use of the Canonto Lodge, including a pontoon boat, gas, and other amenities.

Hill testified that the Villas’ regaled him with stories, using photos to back them up, concerning their connections to the Federal Liberal party and others, including pictures of Jessica posing with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Jessica Villas was employed as the special assistant to Newfoundland MP and cabinet Minister Judy Foote until Foote resigned her seat for family reasons in 2017, but has no other known associations with Trudeau or other senior Liberals.

Gypse Villas told David Hill that he was a senior member of CSIS (The Canadian Security Intelligence Service) and a law professor, and that because of his sensitive undercover work he was “basically a ghost who had no ID, no SIN number, no license, nothing”, Hill said.

Jessica Villas was fraudulently identified to him as a practicing lawyer in Ontario.

“Gulio said she was a ‘real bulldog’ and she smiled along,” Hill said.

Soon after they met, the Villas rented the prime waterfront house at Canonto Lodge for a fall weekend at the discounted price of $100 per night. They ended up staying three nights instead of the two they had originally booked, and Gulio Villas handed $200 in cash to Hill.

“I said, wait a minute, it was 3 nights. He paid me the extra $100, reluctantly.”

According to Hill, that was the first and last time he received payment from either Gulio or Jessica Villas.

And Gulio Villas borrowed the money back a few days later.

Soon after that, the Villas offered to represent Hill, for free, in a small claims suit over the grade of gravel he had used in some road work for property owners in one of the subdivisions that he managed.

“They ended up hitting me up for $6,500 in costs and when I got to court in Kingston they weren’t there. Then judge crucified me for not having a lawyer present, and I lost the $5,000. When we left the court, they were sitting on the bench outside, saying they were sorry they had arrived too late. Gulio went and talked to the judge in the parking and lot, and then went into the building and came out with a document that he said was the judgement. I didn’t know what to think”.

Nonetheless, with the promise of $1.5 million sale dangled in front of him, Hill allowed the Villas to use his lodge quite often, “and sometimes they arrived at our plave with limos and diplomats from around the world, or so they claimed.”

Hill remained convinced, against his better judgement, he told the court, that the Villas were both wealthy and well connected. This persisted in spite of an increasingly bizarre set of claims by Gypse over 3 years.

The Villas then said they would help Hill deal with a larger legal issue he was facing, his relationship with the IBI engineering group, who according to Hill’s testimony, was the source of all of the problems that led to a law suit against him from property owners within his subdivision over the construction of an access laneway to Norcan Lake.

Over time, in Hill’s testimony, backed up by a paper trail of transactions, bank records, and canceled checks, he paid Jessica Villas a total of $35,000 in checks, and Gulio $20,000 in cash, in addition to free lodging worth $35,000. These payments included the purchase of a $2,000 kayak for Jessica and golf clubs for Gypse.

By trusting the Villas to do legal work for him that was never done, he said he has lost well over $1 million, in addition to drastic damage to his immediate family through false promises of employment and other lies.

“They took everything from me, and my family,” Hill said.

Hill eventually realized what was going on contacted the Law Society of Upper Canada and CSIS, and both organizations had no record of a Jessica or Gulio (Gypse) Villas.

He eventually reported the matter to the OPP, who began the investigation that led to the charges.

The case against Jessica Villas was originally joined with that against Gypse, but due to cancer treatments he is reportedly undergoing, Gypse has been unable to stand trial, and therefore the cases have been separated

Judge Griffin, previously and on several occasions during Monday’s court proceedings, questioned the veracity of the claims about Gypse’s health.

“The documentation is here, but I would appreciate it if the police took it on themselves to confirm this,” he said. “It may all be true, but I’m not comfortable with it.”

Hill was cross examined by Jessica Villas’ lawyer, Sean May.

May first tried to establish that Hill was in a vulnerable state when he was first approached by the Villas’.

May asked Hill if he was facing legal difficulties with various parties, including the township of North Frontenac, when he met the Villas in September of 2013.

“I had no issues with North Frontenac Township back then,” Hill said, “only some issues with a few lot owners in a subdivision, that were all due to the IBI group’s faulty work.

May did not press Hill on many the details of his long, sometimes rambling, testimony. Instead, he focused mainly on distinguishing between the roles that Jessica and Gypse Villas played over the three years of interactions.

May asserted, repeatedly, that it was Gypse who made the false claims, and asked Hill to pay money on numerous occasions, and that Jessica was not necessarily directly involved.

Hill resisted, saying that Jessica and Gypsy played a “good cop, bad cop” role, and that most of the conversations between the three of them took place “around the table” between 3 and 5 years so “I can’t tell you who said what, but she was certainly part of it.”

Although May did establish that some of the payments made to both Gypse and Jessica had been based on conversations exclusively between Hill and Gipse, Hill was insistent that, in his words, “Jessica was the wing man.”

“Your wife testified that you and Gipse were like ‘peanut butter and jelly’, May said to Hill.

“I wouldn’t say that, it was more like a fly and fly paper, and I was the fly,” said Hill, “but Jessica was a part of it, all the way through.”

At one point, Jessica Villas signed a purchase agreement, at a price of $600,000, for a number of waterfront lots, but when Hill called the Ottawa Real Estate lawyer that the Villas’ said was acting for them on the matter, the lawyer said he knew nothing about the transaction or the Villas’.

No money was ever paid on the purchase.

The case for the defense will commence on September 23.

Gipsy Villas is also scheduled to appear in court on that date on his own charges, after an agent for his lawyer asked for a four month deferral back in April.

“We need to hear from Gipse at some point soon,” said Judge Griffin. “We need to see him or at least his lawyer here in person on that date.

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