Millions of “frozen” dollars in the United States, a fictitious cancer, a supposed Hells Angel. “Like a spider weaving its web”, Guy Lacombe multiplied the lies to snatch life savings from two vulnerable victims. The so-called artists’ agent received a harsh sentence of 20 months in prison.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
“A long prison sentence is necessary. […] This is not just one action taken to defraud a victim. It is more of a ploy put in place with the aim of gaining the confidence of its victims in order to better cheat them, ”said judge Marie-Josée Di Lallo, on April 22, at the Montreal courthouse. .
Guy Lacombe is a “sweet talker”, summarizes the judge. The kind of swindler capable of bamboozling people who are nevertheless turned on thanks to his clever lies. Even today, the so-called 60-year-old “artist agent” claims, without proof, to be about to sign a contract with a British artist for a Californian tour. He even boasts of having “artists anyone could dream of”.
A master of lies, Guy Lacombe was particularly convincing in making even wacky stories believable. When the police invited his first victim to follow them to the station in 2015, the 87-year-old intellectual refused. Why ? He couldn’t leave his apartment so as not to miss the “truck full of money” that would come to reimburse him. As Guy Lacombe had told him.
This renowned man of letters, whose identity we will conceal because of his vulnerability, paid $100,000 to Guy Lacombe for two years. He believed then hard as iron to help a man who said to consider him as a father. At the time, Guy Lacombe was renting space in a building owned by his victim.
The fraudster claimed to have been the victim of identity theft in the United States. His $660,000 was thus frozen. Later, this hoard will allegedly be held by the Autorité des marchés financiers.
To repatriate this fictitious sum, Guy Lacombe claimed funds to pay various administrative or legal fees.
But the lies didn’t stop there. The crook invented many excuses to extract more money from his victim. Thus, his credit cards were frozen, his cash seized by the police, his millionaire brother would soon help him, his musicians were held up at customs for shows at the Metropolis which would earn him $45,000.
To prove his statements, Guy Lacombe exhibited evidence of investments, fake emails from a “broker”, and even a fake trust contract for an amount of more than 3 million dollars. The fraudster also gave the victim cash advance checks for over $500,000, but never cashed them.
A victim in fear of the Hells Angels
When Guy Lacombe was arrested, his second victim was about to go to the notary to sell his house… to Guy Lacombe. He had shown a check for $400,000 to prove his funds and had provided the telephone number of a purported New York notary.
For five months, in 2019, Guy Lacombe “knew how to weave his web” around this newly divorced woman, making her believe that he was in love with her. To extract his $25,000, his “life savings”, the scammer made him believe that he held more than $5 million in American banks. He claimed to own the – fictitious – company Concert First inc. and hold contracts in the United States with musicians. In addition, he was “very credible”, argues the judge.
When they were about to leave on a trip to Honolulu, the defendant even pretended to receive a call from the hospital informing him that he was suffering from cancer.
Since then, not only has this woman had to call on food aid from her village to feed her family, but she also lives in shame and permanent fear. Guy Lacombe told him he was part of the Hells Angels and even mentioned a night visit from a “gang leader”.
“Wherever I go, I don’t feel safe. I’m afraid of people. What does the future hold for me without money? “, she says in a letter filed in court.
His first victim, the now 92-year-old man, says he lost the taste for writing after devoting his life to this art. “It created a void that always is and always will be within me,” he said in a letter.
To demand a 12-month prison sentence, Guy Lacombe claimed to have become “indispensable” to a young man, in addition to mentioning the “serious illness” of his ex-spouse. He adds that he has completed therapy for his drug addiction.
However, a severe sentence is necessary to reflect the “social disapproval” of such crimes, according to the judge.
“It is obvious that for a fraud for which the degree of responsibility is so flagrant, where the accused has a central role, where he is the instigator, where he forges false documents to fool his victims, where he premeditates his crime and he plays comedy for them over a fairly long period of time, it deserves an aggregate sentence of 20 months in detention, ”she concludes.
Guy Lacombe will have to serve 11 months in prison, taking into account the time spent in preventive detention. He will also have to pay more than $100,000 to his victims.
Mand Bianca Rossi represented the public ministry, while Mand Olivier Cusson defended the accused.