B.C.’s top court has rejected appeals by two men convicted of human trafficking in cases where they ran an escort service where at least one female was under 18.
The case is connected with that of former Vancouver Police Department Det. Const. Jim Fisher, who was jailed for sex crimes against sex workers. He worked on the trafficking case.
The Jan. 10 Court of Appeal decision said Kasra Mohsenipour and Tamim Albashir operated an escort service in Vancouver and Edmonton.
They were found guilty of multiple offences involving three complainants who worked for them. Charges included procuring someone to become a prostitute; living off the avails of prostitution; exercising control, direction or influence over movements to aid, abet or compel prostitution; and exploitation, among other related charges.
The offences were committed between May 2013 and August 2016.
Mohsenipour received a total of nine years in prison while Albashir was sentenced to 10 years.
The complainants were three women, one of whom was 15 and addicted to heroin. At one point, she wanted to visit her mother. Albashir confronted her with what looked like a gun. Other violence or threats of such occurred.
“She was told that she had to work and that she ‘belonged’ to Mr. Albashir,” said the ruling, written by Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten for the unanimous three-judge panel.
Another woman was using methamphetamine while a third had a gun put to her head at one point by Mohsenipour.
The B.C. Supreme Court trial judge said the pair and one other man, “recruited girls and young women to work for them as ‘prostitutes,’ exercised control and direction over them and exploited them with the intent of using the money earned by these girls and young women to finance their own lifestyles which included designer clothing, regular gym workouts, rental of luxury downtown condos, expensive cars and delivered meals.”
The men would drive the women to meet clients in both Edmonton and Vancouver and collect cash from them.
The appeal
The men raised various points of appeal including claims the trial judge erred in assessing the women’s credibility, interpretation of human trafficking and interpretation of receiving a material benefit from human trafficking, among others.
The trial judge said the women’s decision to testify was a difficult one but Mohsenipour and Albashir said he gave too much weight to their demeanour, allowing it to overwhelm the credibility assessment.
“In my view, there is no merit to this ground of appeal,” DeWitt-Van Oosten said.
She said the trial judge was entitled to consider the “complainants’ social context or lived realities, including: probable substance use disorders, economic desperation, exposure to violence as youth, and personal trauma arising from their involvement in sex work, an activity that is judicially-recognized to be inherently risk-laden.”
On the suggestion the trial judge erred in interpretation of human trafficking sections of the Criminal Code as related to exploitation, DeWitt-Van Oosten noted the men transported the women, purchased supplies and rented condos.
“Actual or threatened force is a factor that supports a finding of exploitation,” she said.
And, she said, the human trafficking convictions were sound. She said each of them facilitated exploitative acts by the other.
However, DeWitt-Van Oosten also said several counts should be conditionally stayed.
Det. Const. Fisher
The former Vancouver cop convicted of breach of trust and sexual exploitation had his appeal denied in 2019.
In August 2018, Fisher was sentenced to 20 months in prison and two years’ probation after pleading guilty to two counts of breach of trust and one count of sexual exploitation.
Fisher was arrested and charged in 2016 after he kissed two witnesses, a 17-year-old girl and a 21-year-old woman, who were witnesses in prostitution ring cases he worked on.
Mohsenipour and Albashir alleged they did not receive full disclosure regarding investigative materials surrounding the Fisher investigation.
“At the trial and now on appeal, they have actually received more than what they were properly entitled to,” DeWitt-Van Oosten said.
“I am also satisfied the appellants have not established a reasonable possibility that the non-disclosure affected the overall fairness of their trial,” she said.
