Sandra Elsley is a marriage and family therapist in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Her late husband, John Timothy Elsley, was found dead in his apartment by his then-separated wife Sandra Elsley. The debts of the family and the mortgage of $293,500 from Bank of Nova Scotia were all paid in full from the insurance payouts. A little while later, Sandra Elsley put in an offer to buy a home in Niagara Falls for $550,000. At the time, she lived in her home on 6002 Mountaingate Drive, which had been the marital home of her and her late husband. Sandra Elsley claimed she had the $550,000 with which to purchase the residence that she said she had wanted for many years. The owners of the home, James and Jacqueline Cooper, a retired couple, wished to move to British Columbia. Sandra Elsley presented a conditional offer to the Cooper's to buy their home for $550,000. Sandra Elsley provided a $1000 deposit cheque with her offer. Sandra Elsley's cheque was returned Non Sufficient Funds. Sandra Elsley provided numerous different stories as to why the cheque bounced, one of which she claimed to be a bank error.
Soon after, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper received an offer from a man named Ian Herd, a millionaire developer from out of the area, to purchase their home. Sandra Elsley was contacted by her Real Estate Agent advising Mr. Herd had placed an unconditional offer on the home. The only way Sandra Elsley could buy the home was if she removed the conditions on the offer she had presented. Sandra Elsley removed the conditions and emphatically stated that the home "MUST BE HERS". Since Sandra Elsley advised Mr. and Mrs. Cooper that she had the necessary funds, and she had removed all conditions from her offer and was closing on the sale shortly, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper purchased a home in British Columbia through a bridge loan - a type of loan that is provided by a bank when a home is sold but the buyer need funds to close another property short-term.
Ian Herd went away, and about a week before closing, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper's lawyers were asking Sandra Elsley's lawyer about funds, closing documents, utilities and everything else that occurs in the normal course of closing a real estate transaction.
Sandra Elsley's lawyer advised he was still without funds. We initiated a title search of Sandra Elsley's own home and learned it was maxed out with $300,000 of debt owed to the Meridian Credit Union; this was new debt which had been acquired in the short period since her husband's death.
At closing, Sandra Elsley's agent advised the sellers lawyer that Sandra Elsley did not have funds to close and Sandra Elsley was asking if there was any possibility to contact Ian Herd to see if he was still interested or not.
We also received numerous communications from Sandra Elsley's lawyer and agent that she was borrowing money from banks and friends. Sandra Elsley then irrationally demanded a final inspection of the home (even though she was without funds to close) in what appeared to look like a staged dramatical event to distract everyone from the fact that she did not have any money to buy the home with. She could not find anything wrong with the house at that time. The sale fell through and Mr. and Mrs. Cooper now had an unsold home in Ontario, a new home in British Columbia and a new bridge loan they had to pay without the necessary funds from the sale of the home.
For the next year, Sandra Elsley disparaged the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, all the real estate agents involved, and Ian Cooper. She viciously slandered these people to anyone who would listen: insurance people, other real estate agents and bankers that either lived in the same neighbourhood as Sandra Elsley or were clients of her family therapy practice.
Mr. and Mrs. Cooper's house was relisted for sale after Sandra Elsley's lawyer advisded them that she was absolutely unable to service any mortgage. She had knowingly commited fraud. The house sold a year later at the beginning of the recession at a significantly lower price from Sandra Elsley's and Ian Herd's offers. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper filed a civil law suit against Sandra Elsley in Ontario Superior Court for their substantial losses. Sandra Elsley sued Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, real estate agents for the seller and buyer, and Ian herd for millions and she claimed fraud.
Sandra Elsley provided numerous stories as to why she did not complete the purchase of the home. They are as follows:
1) Ian Herd was a "plant" and not a real buyer to get her to remove the conditions from the purchase. She claimed he was a fraud. The defence proved beyond a doubt that Ian Herd was a millionaire Real Estate mogul, and did in fact have the funds to purchase the home.
2) Sandra Elsley then changed her story that her real estate agent, and the agent of the sellers, committed fraud by tricking her. This was proven false by the numerous letters that she wrote to everyone involved that she knew the rules and understood the contracts that she signed. She was not tricked in any way.
3) She then claimed that she had no recollection of signing and executing any of the documents. Her explaination to this was that she was off work on stress leave because she thought she had a heart attack from all the stress the law suit. She claimed that because of this, through no fault of her own, her health and her practice were suffering.
4) Elsley then changed her story, again, that she had the money but didn't want to buy it because of the home inspection. Sandra Elsley had already waived all conditions on the home and she was granted her final inspection. She was proven untruthful again.
5) We then learned that Sandra Elsley's lawyer, Guy Ungaro, had secured a mortgage to Elsley's home for legal fees owed. It was clear Elsley was not able even able to pay a few thousand dollars to her own lawyer, much less buy a $550,000 home.
6) Then Elsley produced an affifavit from a boyfriend of hers, Glenn Klingler, a man who she claimed lent her $25,000 for the home. He advised he advanced money to one of her credit cards, but $25,000 was not certainly not enough to buy this home. It was believe she conned him and anyone else that she could into advancing her money. None of it went to the purchase of home.
7) Elsley then claimed the real estate agent and the sellers were bullies. She claimed they were harassing her when she went to do the inspection. She said they were mean to her and they intimidated her.
8) Finally, in Elsley's final desperate attempt to save herself, she claimed asbestos in the home was the reason she did not complete the sale even though she had not found any asbestos during her final inspection of the home.
In 2008, Justice Matheson heard the evidence in the case. He reviewed the executed documents of the purchase of the home. He reviewed Sandra Elsley's documents waiving all conditions. He reviewed a significant number of redherrings asserted by Elsley to distract everyone from the facts: Elsley felt entitled to a home she could not afford and cost an elderly couple a lot of money and stress. In fact, Mr. Cooper succombed to the stress caused by Sandra Elsley and her lies, and died of a heart attack before the pre-trial.
At the pretrial, Justice Matheson advised Elsley that in his opinion, the facts were clear and that she had not been truthful with the court. He advised her that in his opinion, she would not succeed at trial and would owe the sellers damages as well as the real estate agents that she sued.
A week before trial, Sandra contacted the lawyers of the sellers and real estate agents and advised that she would pay them $50,000 to settle the case. She advised that if they did not accept this offer, she would file bankruptcy and they would get nothing. Based on her financial history, the lawyers and real estate agents accepted the offer knowing that Sandra would not be able to pay costs and judgements against her at the end of her trial.
We were advised that the $50,000 did not even come from Sandra Elsley. She had conned yet another person into paying out the money for her.
I will post the entire court record with Elsley's numerous false statements for everyone to review.
A word to the wise: I would be very careful before entering into any business arrangement or dealing in any way with this woman.