Domestic disturbance call turns into fraud bust in PoCo for Coquitlam RCMP

A Port Coquitlam woman faces a number of charges and a man is wanted by police after a domestic violence call turned into a fraud factory bust last week.

According to Coquitlam RCMP, police responded to a possible domestic dispute call just after 10 p.m. on Oct. 26 in an apartment in the 2300-block of Shaughnessy Street in PoCo. While Mounties were inside talking to a woman, the officers noticed fraud-related items.

The detachment’s fraud section was notified and a search warrant executed on the apartment the next day.

Officers seized hundreds of items, including: driver’s licences, fake or altered credit cards, gift cards, blank cheques, cheques in the process of being altered, laminating materials to make fake credit cards and foil material used to make fake cheques, computers and hard drives, printers, a dozen cell phones, a card reader and pin pads, and potentially thousands of credit card numbers and pieces of stolen mail. Police also found what is believed to be crystal meth.

“Everything we seized was consistent with fraud activity,” said Const. Linda Barrett of the Coquitlam RCMP’s fraud section. “Credit card and cheque fraud factories don’t take up much space and they don’t make much noise, so they can be hard for police to find.”

Barrett said this operation was discovered thanks to concerned neighbours who made the initial call and the keen eye of general duty members.

PoCo resident Nicole Alana Cote, 30, was arrested at the apartment and charged with possessing forgery instruments, unauthorized use of credit card data and possessing property obtained by crime. She was released on bail and will make her next court appearance on Nov. 18.

As well, a Canada-wide warrant has been issued for Petr Pouska, 42, also of PoCo, for breach of parole. He is also facing several fraud-related charges and personation in connection with the investigation.

Anyone with information on Pouska’s whereabouts is asked to call police at 604-945-1550 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

spayne@tricitynews.com

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