SYDNEY, N.S. -- The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court decision quashing charges against eight people because the informations sworn to by a constable with the Cape Breton Regional Police Service weren't valid.
Justice Duncan Beveridge, who wrote the majority decision of the three-member court panel, said Const. Mary Gibbons of the Cape Breton Regional Police had neither personal knowledge nor reasonable grounds to believe that any of the appellants had committed any offence.
"Const. Gibbons had no knowledge whatsoever about the charges against the individuals named in the informations," said the decision released Friday.
"Nonetheless, she swore under oath, before a justice of the peace, that she did."
The informations were challenged before provincial court Judge Jean Whalen in June 2013. She ruled that the informations were invalid but added that the problem was more of a systemic one rather a rogue action by Gibbons.
The Crown appealed Whalen's decision to the Summary Conviction Appeal Court, where Justice Frank Edwards overturned Whalen's decision.
One of the lawyers in the case then applied for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal, which upheld Whalen's decision.
The decision released Friday said Gibbons swore false informations hundreds of times between 2009 and June 2012.
The Cape Breton Regional Police have since changed the practice to ensure that officers now swearing court informations are able to verify that they are accurate, the Court of Appeal said.
The informations in question dealt with dual or hybrid offences. Those are crimes the Crown can proceed with as less serious summary offences or more serious indictments.
