A few years after he was released from prison after serving more than five years for fraud, Scott Brooks began targeting victims once again, a judge heard Tuesday as Brooks pleaded guilty mid-trial to six counts of fraud.
In total, Brooks, 52, pleaded guilty to 17 charges including fraud, forgery-related offences and impersonation.
He admitted to taking more than $1 million from six victims over an eight-year period.
“Between 2010 and 2018 he had no other employment except fraud,” reads the agreed statement of facts filed Tuesday as part of Brooks’ guilty plea.
Since he was charged in 2024, Brooks has had at least six different defence lawyers.
His piecemeal trial began a year ago and was delayed several times, including when Brooks intentionally overdosed on his heart medication and required hospitalization.
At that point, prosecutor Aaron Rankin argued Brooks had been intentionally making himself sick to delay the case.
The judge agreed and revoked his bail.
This week, Rankin was in the middle of calling Crown evidence when Brooks suddenly decided to change his plea.
The plea was finalized with an agreed statement of facts (ASF) prepared by Rankin and Brooks’ latest lawyer, Kale Vizor.
A sentencing hearing will take place later this year before Court of King’s Bench Justice Robert Armstrong.
Brooks accepted all of the evidence called in his trial to date, including emails he authored and confessions to police.
In 2019, while under investigation, Brooks wrote an email to an RCMP investigator, calling himself a “fraudster.”
“I also know you view me as a fraudster who will lie his way around anything,” wrote Brooks to the officer. “That is true I am. This is probably the only truthful thing I’ve said in a long time.”
His statements to police include his comments on Nov. 8, 2019, that he has “lived a double life” and that he has “destroyed families cause they trusted me.”
In the ASF, Brooks admitted to directing his victims to transfer money into accounts that were in the names of his wife and underage son.
More than $500,000 flowed through his teenage son’s bank account, according to the ASF.
Brooks’ frauds involved lying to investors and pretending to be involved in multi-million dollar deals in the oil and gas industry.
He also impersonated lawyers and spoofed emails in order to convince investors to hand over more cash.
In one of the frauds, Brooks “concocted a story” about having invented a new flange for use in the oilfield. It was supposed to be so innovative that it could be patented and was highly valuable.
Brooks told his victims that the pending sale of this technology would yield $6.6 million in profit.
“This entire story was a complete fabrication designed to part honest people from their money,” reads the ASF.
One couple gave the fraudster $800,000. They blew through their retirement savings and ended up living in their daughter’s basement.
In another instance, Brooks told an alleged victim he was in a multi-million dollar business deal with ConocoPhillips.
That investor handed over $200,000, in part, because of faked correspondence from a local lawyer whose email signature was forged by Brooks.
