A Canadian man has lost a 16-year legal battle to reclaim more than C$1.2m (£651,000) in cash seized from his home.
Police found the large amount of money stashed in various places around Marcel Breton’s north-western Ontario home during a search for an illegal firearm in 2009, as well as a variety of drugs.
Breton was convicted of various offences but was acquitted at a retrial after arguing the search of his property had not been lawful.
But earlier this week, an Ontario appeals court upheld a 2023 ruling that decided most of the seized money should go to the Canadian government, putting an end to his chances of recouping it.
The trial judge had concluded that Breton did not lawfully possess the cash found around his property.
Police recovered C$1,235,620 buried under his garage, C$32,000 stored elsewhere in the garage, and bundles of money totalling $15,000 in the under-floor heating ducts of the living room.
In particular, the trial judge noted that it was “unusual for an average person to have such a large amount of money buried in tubs underneath their property”, that the most common denomination was C$20 – an amount an expert said was commonly associated with the drug trade – and that the cash was found near drugs and drug paraphernalia.
Breton also did not report any income to the revenue agency between 2001 and 2008, the judge said.
But the appeals court upheld the decision for the $15,000 found inside the vents of his home to be returned to him, as the judge could not rule out that it had been obtained lawfully as it was not bundled in consistent denominations like the cash found in the garage.