RCMP on the Burin Peninsula charged a former Provincial Conservation Officer, 30-year-old Jonathan Organ of Stephenville, today with breach of trust and other criminal offences.
On October 16, 2019, Burin Peninsula RCMP were contacted by the Chief of Special Investigations with the Provincial Department of Fisheries and Land Resources (now Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture) about an internal theft by a former Conservation Officer.
The police investigation, which was conducted by RCMP's General Investigation Section in Marystown, revealed that the former Conservation Officer had issued cutting permits to a number of clients on at least four different dates between 2017 and 2018, where he pocketed the cash payments he had received. The permits issued were then cancelled, allegedly by Organ, on the computer system that was used to input the transaction.
Those who had purchased the permits were not aware that they had been cancelled until they went to renew their cutting permits the next year.
Jonathan Organ is charged with four counts of theft under $5000.00, one count of false return by a public officer, and one count of breach of trust.
He is scheduled to appear in Grand Bank Provincial Court on March 24, 2021.