Disability fraudster admits to scams

Kumar KotharyStan Behal, Toronto Sun

A Scarborough father admitted bilking taxpayers and a charitable camp for kids with cancer out of about $545,000.

Kumar Kothary, who turned 57 on Monday, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in front of Justice Russell Silverstein.

Kothary admitted he sent his daughter, Jessica, now 24, and his son, Jason, who’s in his late teens, to Camp Quality Canada — a charity camp program for children with cancer — for 10 years, starting in 2004. Jessica stopped attending in 2011.

Neither child has ever had cancer  but Jessica had severe anemia.

The average cost of sending a child to camp is $4,000, so the total loss is $80,000.

The Camp Quality Canada camp is free fore cancer patients, ages four to 18. The campers can either be undergoing therapy or in remission.

The camp is run by volunteer sponsors, corporate sponsors, donations and fundraising.

Kothary also  admitted that he plundered the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) for $379,229 from 2011 to February, 2015. Court heard he submitted false invoices and hotel bills until a caseworker discovered the scam.

In addition, Kothary ripped off $86,000 from  another disability financial support program called Passport Funding, which reimburses parents for  expenses paid for their disabled teens such as caregiver services and other programs.

In order to obtain the ODSP  benefits, he lied that his daughter was deaf, blind and diabetic. He also misled government officials that she could barely speak and couldn’t walk. As part of his scam, Kothary said his daughter had the IQ of an infant and therefore couldn’t undergo testing.

Crown attorney David Steinberg urged the judge to impose a three-year to four-year prison sentence on Kothary.

 Kothary’s lawyer John Erickson said his client has paid back $190,000 and is endeavouring to deplete all his family’s savings and borrow another $43,000 from relatives abroad to make  further restitution.

Silverstein will impose his sentence in February.

 spazzano@postmedia.com