A Dutch national who has allegedly lived in Nova Scotia since 2000 using a false identity was arraigned in Halifax provincial court Wednesday on immigration and criminal charges.
David Samh Samhun Ishaq Sadik, 50, of Bridgewater faces an Immigration and Refugee Protection Act charge of misrepresentation and a Criminal Code charge of fraud over $5,000 for allegedly collecting more than $230,000 in social assistance over the past 19 years.
Sadik has been in custody since Nov. 15, when officers with the Canada Border Services Agency’s inland enforcement section placed him on an immigration hold.
He appeared in court Wednesday without a lawyer.
Judge Bill Digby remanded Sadik back to the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth and scheduled the case to return to court Friday.
According to court documents filed by the CBSA to obtain a search warrant, a man who said his name was David Levy turned himself in to the Halifax-Dartmouth bridge police in December 2000, claiming he was a refugee from Yemen.
In 2002, the Immigration and Refugee Board issued a decision denying Levy refugee status. He was ordered to be deported from Canada but has remained in the country without status.
Based on his claim that he was a citizen of Yemen, Levy’s deportation could not take place until he had a passport from Yemen. But efforts to obtain a passport from Yemen were unsuccessful, delaying the deportation.
Last month, a CBSA investigator received information from the Nova Scotia Registry of Motor Vehicles that its facial recognition software had determined the photo on a learner’s licence and identification card issued recently to a man named David Sadik appeared to match the photo on a driver’s licence issued last year to a David Levy.
The registry said Sadik had presented a Dutch passport and Dutch identification card to prove his identity.
Further investigation by the CBSA revealed Sadik entered Canada through Pearson International Airport in Toronto on three occasions between December 2010 and May 2016, using a Dutch passport each time.
Dutch authorities confirmed the passport issued to Sadik was genuine. They said he had applied for refugee asylum in the Netherlands in 1992 and became a Dutch citizen in 1997.
Arrested Nov. 15
Sadik was arrested by a CBSA investigator Nov. 15. In an interview that day, he allegedly admitted his true identity and said he was born in Yemen but has Dutch citizenship. He said he travelled to the United States in 2000, crossed into Canada at Windsor, Ont., and travelled to Nova Scotia by bus.
During that interview, Sadik also said he has been on social assistance since coming to Canada. He did not provide an explanation for why he made a refugee claim using the name of David Levy.
The CBSA investigator, Blair MacDonald, applied for a warrant to search Sadik’s apartment on Maple Street in Bridgewater, which was rented in the name of David Levy.
The search allegedly turned up four Dutch passports in the name of Sadik, three of which were expired, and a bank statement for Levy showing four deposits last month totalling more than $18,000.
Documents were also seized showing that Levy had recently sent about $27,000 to a man in the Netherlands in a series of TD Bank wire transfers and another $11,000 to someone in Germany.
The CBSA has submitted a request for records to Public Services and Procurement Canada and has obtained a production order from the court for records from the provincial Department of Community Services and TD Bank.
“Sadik has demonstrated a willingness to make false and misleading statements to achieve his goal of remaining in Canada under a false identity,” MacDonald said in applying for the production order.
“By representing himself as David Levy, (Sadik) has abused Canada’s social programs and that of the Province of Nova Scotia. For approximately 19 years, Sadik has been receiving social assistance from the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services, Pharmacare benefits from the Province of Nova Scotia, and years of medical appointments, all of which was paid for by taxpayers. I also believe Sadik has received social benefits from the federal government.”
None of the allegations in the court documents has been proven in court.
