The Crown is opposing a case-funding application by a former Vancouver Pride Society treasurer now facing income tax charges. Auguste Christiane von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg is facing six charges that he was involved in understating the taxable incomes of 235 clients to a total of almost $782,091.
The six counts were laid under the federal Income Tax Act.
He has pleaded not guilty and will likely go to trial in the fall.
Von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg had filed a so-called Rowbotham application to obtain public funding for his defence.
Rowbothams are funding applications for those who have exhausted all legal representation avenues, do not have the funds to hire a lawyer, face a serious or complex trial or cannot defend themselves because the case is too complex and he or she does not have the skills given their educational and work background.
A hearing on the application was supposed to take place March 29. It had to be adjourned as von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg was not ready to proceed.
Von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg told Provincial Court Judge Jodie Werier he had not received any documentation from the court.
He also said he had made several attempts to get legal aid but has received no response from the Legal Services Society. Further, he told Werier, he could not access his documents to disclose his financial information as they were in the custody of Canada Revenue Agency, which laid the charges.
Crown prosecutor Peter Eccles told Werier he had problems with von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg’s credibility.
Eccles said information had been sent to von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg’s West End home, and 11 boxes of documents were ready for him.
“They are ready to be picked up . . . if he decides to do so,” Eccles told Werier.
Further, Eccles told the court, von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg does not need the seized documents to complete the forms.
Eccles told the court exactly what information von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg needs to provide.
At that point, von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg brandished an envelope he said had just been given to him moments earlier in the courtroom informing him his father had died.
Both Werier and Eccles ignored the comment.
Werier said it was “a curiosity” to her von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg had not received the mail from the prosecution.
Then, von Pfahlenburg-Marienburg suggested it had been left with someone at his address.
“My landlady has some issues of her own to deal with,” he said.
A new date for the application was not set.
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