And he now faces another civil suit for non-payment of a $57,000 legal bill launched against him by the lawyer who defended him.

It's all part of an intriguing and often contradictory portrait emerging of the man who triggered the resignation of immigration minister Judy Sgro yesterday amid allegations that she promised him asylum in Canada in exchange for help on her campaign, then used her power to remove him from the country when news of the arrangement began to leak out.

Singh, 49, is locked inside Toronto West Detention Centre awaiting an immigration hearing and a looming deportation date of next Thursday.

But court documents, detailed immigration records and interviews with those who know him portray a man who is a sophisticated fraudster, churchgoing Mennonite, deeply depressed widower and father fighting desperately to keep his family together in Canada.

Court documents, obtained by the Toronto Star, show that last June a judge ruled that Singh, his two sons Surinderpal Singh and Parminder Singh and his daughter Jatinder Kaur, "acted jointly in skimming credit and debit cards, in making counterfeit cards and in using them fraudulently."

Canada's five major banks filed a civil suit in 2000 against 16 people including Singh, his wife and his three children. Singh was never convicted of a criminal offence.

The civil suit claimed damages of more than $1 million for conspiring "to steal credit and debit card data and manufacturing counterfeit cards." Those fraudulent cards were then used "to make purchases, cash advances and to access cardholder bank accounts," the banks alleged in their statement of claim.

The judge ruled: "These defendants agreed to work together in a common cause and, towards that end, one or more of them from time to time, with confederates as required, engaged in one or more of the three parts of the fraudulent scheme in order to advance their common cause."

Satinder Kaur, Singh's wife, died in March 2004, and was not found responsible.

When police searched Harjit's home in September 2000, they seized nine credit cards from the top of his bedroom dresser, according to the court records.

Police determined one of the cards appeared to be an Esso card encoded with Bank of Nova Scotia account information belonging to an acquaintance of Singh. Several other cards, the judge found, were used "to manufacture additional counterfeit cards."

The judge awarded the banks damages of $577,174.44 for the fraud committed by the Singh family. But the family settled with the banks for $300,000, court documents indicate.

The Singhs purchased their upscale home in a sprawling subdivision of Brampton near Airport Rd., north of Bovaird Dr., in January 2004, for $485,000. On Dec. 2, 2004, a charge was registered against the home in the sum of $300,000 — the same amount of the settlement reached in the credit card fraud judgement, according to court records.

As the Star reported yesterday, Singh filed a sworn affidavit in federal court this week alleging Sgro traded assurances of asylum in Canada for help recruiting volunteers for her re-election campaign last year. That arrangement began to unravel after the election when a Sgro aide began threatening to speak openly about it, the affidavit claims.

From then on, Singh alleges Sgro distanced herself from her promise and began using her influence to remove him from the country. "I believe that now to save her job Judy Sgro is using her power to remove me from Canada," the affidavit says.

Singh purchased a family-run business — Pizza Market — last year for $115,000. Reporters outnumbered customers at the Brampton pizza shop yesterday.

"No comment. No comment. No comment," replied the young woman behind the counter when asked about Singh. A staff member identified her as Singh's daughter. But when asked to confirm, she would only say, "no comment."

Singh's daughter, Jatinder Kaur, pleads in a sworn affidavit in his immigration file that her father "has no one if he were to return to India. If something happens to him, there is no one he can turn to. He had previously tried to commit suicide in 2004 and was admitted to Credit Valley Hospital. He is very depressed now and I am concerned about his well-being."

Sarwar Din, pastor at Evangelical Asian Church in Toronto, says Singh and his family, converts to Christianity, have been regular churchgoers for years. "He is a very nice guy," Din said yesterday. "From time to time, I would pray with him. His whole family used to come to church."

He said Singh's immigration and legal problems were not a secret. "I heard about (the credit card fraud allegations). He told me a story that somebody blamed him and went to their house and did something to create a problem for him. But then, later on, he showed me some paper, saying, `No, I was not guilty, I did nothing wrong.' He told me he's clear. I don't know."

Gursewak Brar Singh said he's known Singh since 1999, when his business partner introduced them. "This guy is not a danger to society," he said yesterday. "All I know is that he was undergoing deportation. ... When his wife was sick he (Singh) was told he could stay (in Canada) because she was seriously ill. He was told he could stay as long as she was alive."

Singh's current legal battle involves his one-time legal defender. Following the result of the credit card fraud case, Singh's former lawyer, Mark Klaiman, filed a civil suit against Singh, his daughter and wife for $57,133.30 in unpaid legal bills, court documents show.

Klaiman's statement of claim alleges Singh indicated he couldn't pay the bill because he was subject to a deportation order, was leaving Canada permanently and that he'd sold the family home to pay an existing first mortgage and the $300,000 civil judgment in the bank case.

Based on that information, Klaiman settled the bill for $5,000, the claim states.

The lawyer's statement of claim alleges Singh was being "false and misleading" and that the family has "not sold their home, nor did they utilize the proceeds from the sale to pay the existing first mortgage or the outstanding judgment."

The case is before the courts.

(Source: The Toronto Star)

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