Retired BC cop fined $60,000 for concealing archaeological status of property

The BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) said Judy Bood, who had only been licensed for three years when the situation arose, committed professional misconduct by failing to disclose that the coastal property was subject to the Heritage Conservation Act.

The property, located on Vancouver Island, was put up for sale by Bood in July 2018 after already confirming through an archaeological consultancy that the land was part of a protected area, meaning it could not be altered without special government permits, according to the regulator’s Jan. 10 decision.

Despite this knowledge, the title declaration submitted with the advertisement indicated that the land had not been designated as a heritage site.

Copper is in the dark

According to the decision, Bood listed the property once before selling it and would verbally tell potential buyers that it was archaeologically significant.

When a buyer submitted an offer for $300,000 in October 2018, the seller instructed Bood not to disclose the archaeological status of the property, an instruction Bood followed. The transaction was completed later that month.

Shortly after taking possession, the buyer was clearing brush and trees from the property and received a call from the provincial Archeology Department and was instructed to stop clearing the land due to its conservation status.

Unable to proceed with the planned development, the buyer later sold the property for $200,000, incurring a loss of approximately $110,000, including costs.

Hearing officer calls behavior misleading

In the decision, counsel Andrew Pendray said Bood’s failure to disclose information was not a matter of oversight, but a deliberate choice that was misleading.

“She was aware that she had a duty to disclose that information, and she chose not to do so, with the intent to ensure that the transaction would proceed,” Pendray wrote, adding that her conduct “may properly be viewed as an attempt to deceive the buyer.”

Bood’s entries

Bood, who is now retired and has no prior disciplinary history, admitted to the misconduct and cooperated with investigators.

She said her actions were a mistake she made during a difficult time in her life for health reasons, and that there was no risk she would ever make it again.

While she acknowledged her actions were intentional, she claimed they were not “significantly deceptive or fraudulent.”

She said her health condition had left her “without any struggle” regarding her selling client’s directions, and that she had simply stuck to the fact that the buyer was a sophisticated developer.

This argument did not sit well with the regulator, who wrote: “If the buyer was so sophisticated as to be presumed to have knowledge of potential archaeological problems, what harm would disclosure of the fact of the archaeological site have caused?”

It said the $110,000 financial loss suffered by the buyer was an aggravating factor working against Bood.

Penalty imposed to ‘send a signal’ to officers

The decision calls Bood’s actions “serious misconduct” and says the purpose of the fine is to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future.

“…The amount of the fine in this case should be sufficient to serve as a clear signal to Ms. Bood, to other licensees in Ms. Bood’s position in the future, and to the public that appropriate disclosure of material latent defects must be made.”

The decision states that the sanctions should serve as a reminder to other registrants that, in situations where a customer has instructed an agent to act outside the rules, the agent is obliged to refuse to continue providing services to that customer.

In addition to the $60,000 fine, Bood was also ordered to pay $6,500 to cover costs associated with the investigation and disciplinary proceedings.