The Laval Police arrested a 14-year-old boy last week as part of their investigation into threatening calls that led to several preventive school lockdowns. The LPD said the teenager was arrested last Thursday at his family home.

After meeting with investigators, he appeared before the Court of Quebec’s youth division, where he was charged with threats, public mischief and breach of conditions. He was back in court last Monday.

Several preventive lockdowns had to be carried out at Laval schools due to “threatening” calls, which all proved unfounded.

Both L’Odyssée-des-Jeunes and Georges-Vanier high schools had lockdowns. The same thing happened at École Poly-Jeunesse and École des métiers spécialisés de Laval.

LPD arrest jewellery store robber, wanted for six heists

The Laval Police confirm that an appeal to members of the public in September to help identify a suspect being sought following a Chomedey jewellery store robbery last summer led to his arrest this month.

Alain Bernecky Jr., age 45, faces two charges of theft over $5,000. He was still being detained by police last week when they issued a statement. He is scheduled to stand before a judge in Quebec Court on Oct. 28.

In addition to confirming his role in the Laval robbery, the LPD also were able to confirm the Bernecky’s involvement in several more jewellery store heists over the last few months in Montreal, the Eastern Townships and the Centre-du-Québec region.

In the robbery committed in Laval, he made off with a rack of 20 gold chains with a value of $800 – $1,000 each. He did this after asking the store clerk whether he could have an up-close look at the chains.

In all, the LPD was able to determine (after consulting with several other police departments) that Bernecky had committed six robberies between July and September. It was determined that he managed to steal nearly $100,000 in jewellery during this period.

Laval Police seek female suspect for ‘misrepresentation’ fraud

The Laval Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying a female suspect being sought on a charge of “misrepresentation” fraud allegedly committed on City of Laval territory.

Since last April, according to a statement issued by the LPD, nearly a dozen new complaint files have been opened about a woman who’s been going around targeting senior citizens in particular.

In the scheme, someone calls a vulnerable senior by phone at home. The names most often used by the caller, according to the police, are Simon Blais and Simon Cloutier.

The caller claims to be an investigator with a financial institution or from the federal Anti Fraud Centre, saying that the targeted senior has been the victim of a fraud on their bank transaction card.

Once the perpetrator has won the victim’s confidence, they tell the victim to place the banking card in an envelope and to put it in the household mailbox so that an accomplice (often called Jessica Blais) can later pick it up for the purposes of a supposed investigation.

The phone caller then obtains the card’s PIN number from the victim. An accomplice later shows up at the victim’s home to pick up the envelope. Fraudulent transactions are then made with the card only a few minutes later.

The suspect the LPD has in mind is described this way:

• Caucasian woman, age 20 to 25;
• Speaks French;
• Long blonde hair, combed into a bun;
• Was wearing a white sweater, black slacks and « Nike » sneakers.

Anyone with information on her is asked to get in touch with the LPD’s Info-Line at 450 662-INFO (4636) or at 9-1-1. The file number is LVL-240416-053.

AMP scolds Héma-Québec for lack of clarity in awarding contract

Quebec’s Autorité des marchés publics (AMP), which regulates the governance of public organizations, is making some recommendations to Héma-Québec after the provincial blood donation agency was found to have lacked transparency and clarity in the awarding of a recent contract for an advertising campaign.

The two-year $294,000 contract was awarded following a call for tenders. A selection committee decided the winning contract.

Falling short

According to the AMP, Héma-Québec fell short of normal standards by failing to specify in call-for-tender documents the elements defining the minimum quality level it was seeking.

As well, according to the AMP, the blood donation agency failed in its duties when it rejected one of two offers received, although Héma-Québec later claimed it rejected the offer on the basis that it didn’t meet quality levels, which were never stated in the call-for-tender documents.

Bidder rejected

The AMP said that even though Héma-Québec failed to state whether it was shopping for an ad campaign on a monthly or annual basis, it rejected one of the tendering bids because it wasn’t for an annual campaign.

Héma-Québec also rejected the bid, saying the bidder’s team had an insufficient number of years experience in the advertising domain, although this was never stated as a requirement in the tendering documents.

The AMP recommended that the AMP’s administrators familiarize themselves more thoroughly with the procedures to follow when calling for tenders, so that all the relevant details are spelled out clearly and transparently.