Businessman and automobile collector Roger Demers, of Thetford Mines, is accused of fraud at the expense of the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec.
He appeared Friday morning at the Thetford Mines courthouse, where he pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Demers, known for his collection of old and exotic cars, is accused of having received income replacement benefits without right between November 2004 and September 2018, indicated to The Press the prosecutor in the file, Ms.e Nathalie Chouinard. The amount of the alleged fraud was not specified during the brief appearance.
Mr. Demers is represented by Montreal lawyer Richard Généreux, from Évolex.
Last May, Mr. Demers was found guilty of sexually touching a minor. He appealed this verdict. The date for the hearing in the Court of Appeal has not yet been set, told The Press his lawyer in this case, Mr.e David Petranic. Mr. Demers asked the Superior Court to order a new trial in this case.
Mr. Demers was also accused in another case of sexual touching, against a woman in her thirties. The defense has filed a motion for a stay of proceedings, the hearing of which is due to take place in May in Thetford Mines, indicated Mr.e Petranic.
Mr. Demers had acquired a certain notoriety during the 2010s, when he was promoting a Quebec Automobile Museum, which would have been financed by the Public Treasury and which would have housed around fifty of his approximately 500 cars. of collection. Mr. Demers claimed that many of his cars had belonged to celebrities.
The project had caught the attention of a few MPs and mayors, but none followed up after Mr. Demers’ claims about the origin of several of these cars were challenged in these pages in 2014.