Businessman Daniel Bard has had his share of legal troubles in recent years. He was sued in civil proceedings by contractors and is the subject of a police investigation. He was nowhere to be found for almost three years.
He was arrested last March in Edmundston, then charged in Provincial Court in Moncton in early July. He faces 19 criminal charges, including fraud, theft and money laundering.
The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is also on his trail. She turned to New Brunswick Small Claims Court in January 2020 in an attempt to recover several thousand dollars.
She demands that Daniel Bard pay her a credit card debt of $15,172 and an overdraft (an account with a negative balance) of $660. She is also claiming the interest accrued on these sums since December 2019, at the rate of 24.99% and 22% respectively per year.
So far, the defendant has refused to pay
alleges the RBC in his notice of complaint.
All of the money claimed from Daniel Bard by the RBC – consisting of credit card debt, overdraft and interest – reaches the New Brunswick Small Claims Court maximum threshold of $20,000.
Unsuccessful attempts to find Daniel Bard
After the claim was filed in Small Claims Court in January 2020, RBC attempted to have a copy delivered to Daniel Bard, as it is required to do. However, she was unable to locate him.
At the time, the businessman – a former vice-president of 3+, the economic development corporation of Greater Moncton – had already been targeted for months by allegations of fraud and through civil suits. He was nowhere to be found.
A first attempt was made in September 2020 at the last known residential address of Daniel Bard, located in Dieppe, without success.
In February 2022, lawyers for the RBC retained the services of a firm specializing in the search for persons in the context of legal proceedings. An agent got hold of phone numbers and tried several times to reach Daniel Bard.
In a sworn statement, she explains that she spoke with an elderly lady from Edmundston who was probably a member of her family. This lady would then have said that she did not know where Daniel Bard was.
It was only a few weeks later, in March 2022, that Daniel Bard was arrested in Edmundston.
RBC gets permission to do it differently
The 1is June 2022, Royal Bank of Canada filed a claim in Small Claims Court. In the document, she summarizes the unsuccessful efforts to deliver a copy of her claim to Daniel Bard in recent years.
She is asking for a delay and authorization to notify Daniel Bard of her claim other than by handing over the documents to her, either by means of an advertisement in the English-language daily Telegraph-Journal.
A hearing on this matter was held in Moncton on July 22. Small Claims Court arbitrator Lucie LaBoissonnière rendered her decision on July 26. In the document, obtained by Radio-Canada Acadie, she accepts the request of the RBC.
It gives him until January 25, 2023 to publish a notice in the Telegraph-Journal. From publication, Daniel Bard will have 60 days to respond to the financial institution’s claim.
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