A Montreal accountant has been banned for nearly a year by the Disciplinary Council after he deemed it unnecessary to report his professional mandate for allegedly luring 34 teenage girls and producing child pornography.
“In each of these cases, the respondent answers the question of whether he has been found guilty of a criminal offense in Canada in the negative,” we can read in a recent decision of the Regulatory Council of Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA of Quebec), about Guillaume Poitras.
The 42-year-old father, who was released halfway through the first half of last May, was discharged for a period of 11 months to be exact.
In 2020, a man who thought he only had 90 days in jail to serve on weekends finally received a four-year sentence at the end of his trial.
36 of the 46 charges of luring and producing child pornography against him were proved. His victims were between the ages of 11 and 17.
A small caveat…
Poitras was caught having sex with a 14-year-old girl. It was actually a policewoman.
The facts are from 2010 to 2012, a period of approximately two and a half years.
But up until the moment of his conviction, Poitras never saw fit to alert the secretary of his professional discipline or the criminal charges against him in his mandatory annual announcements.
Here we are talking about the periods 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. He did not do so after being sentenced, saying he believed he should await his sentence.
“Documents […] It proves that the respondent has not exhibited honesty, integrity and good conduct, although this is expected of him,” we read in the judgment.
Temporary cancellation
Last December, the council decided to file a disciplinary complaint in the face of Poitras’s behavior, which “brings shame on the entire profession.”
The latter confessed to most of the crimes he was accused of.
We note that “the public has a right to believe that the regulatory body is interfering in the face of this membership, which directly conflicts with the basic qualities required to practice the profession of a chartered professional accountant.”
Poitras has been a member of the order since 2012. He was already undergoing temporary radiation since September 2020. This period will be deducted from his current radiation.
The 40-year-old plans to take up a position as a financial controller for a construction company, knowing his background.
No minor
During a hearing before the Parole Board of Canada, he expressed shame and remorse for his actions.
Also, the council bans him from serving minor customers for the next seven years, except in the presence of an adult.
His name has been on the Sex Offenders Register since 2020.
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