Bedford fraud artist Scott Lee Gray pleads guilty to theft charges

A Bedford man has pleaded guilty to 20 charges in a crime spree stretching from the Annapolis Valley to Dartmouth that involved selling cars he didn't own and stealing puppies, storage sheds and gas.

Scott Lee Gray, 41, admitted to the crimes Friday afternoon in Dartmouth provincial court.

Gray sat quietly on the prisoner's bench with his head bowed, only raising it to confirm to Judge Dan MacRury that the facts read into the record by the Crown were accurate.

Admitted to selling car he didn't own

Gray admitted to selling a Dodge pickup truck that he no longer owned, as it had been offered as security on a loan and signed over to the lender. Gray used forged papers to sell it a second time.

That wasn't the only time Gray sold a vehicle he didn't own.

Last year he found a woman, Karen Sproule, trying to sell a 2011 Ford Edge that needed some repairs. Gray told Sproule he could do the repairs and help sell her car, then took $1,790 for repairs he never performed.

Gray also sold Sproule's car to Kingston Auto for $14,500, which was $10,000 less than she wanted. She eventually discovered the crime by tracking him down on social media.

$1,280 advance for a slushy machine

Several of Gray's neighbours in Bedford also fell victim to several scams. In one case, Gray posed as a former police officer and offered to import an expensive slushy machine. He took a $1,280 advance for a machine that was never delivered.

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Along the way, he bilked various companies out of storage sheds, chain saws, generators and car parts, among other items.

Stole 2 dogs

One of Gray's moreunusual crimes involved dogs. Gray admitted to stealing two Great Pyrenees puppies from a breeder in the Annapolis Valley. He paid $1,500 for the dogs with a cheque that bounced and managed to get a $700 cash refund when he returned one dog.

Gray's crimes continued until March 2016, when he stole gas from two different gas stations to fuel two different vehicles.

Wheeled full cart out of Superstore

He was also caught wheeling a cart full of merchandise out of an Atlantic Superstore location in Dartmouth. The store's loss prevention officer estimated the value of items in the cart at more than $640.

The charges against Gray had dragged on for months, in part because he had told several judges he was having difficulty finding a lawyer to represent him.

On Friday, two lawyers represented Gray as he entered his guilty pleas.

Sentencing postponed

Those lawyers are requesting a Gladue report be prepared before Gray is sentenced. That report will look at whether Gray's Mi'kmaq heritage should have a bearing on any sentence he receives. The judge also ordered the preparation of a standard pre-sentence report.

Both reports will take time to prepare, so his sentencing has been put off until October.

In the meantime, Gray is under house arrest in Windsor. He's to have no contact with any of the people he defrauded or any of the places he stole from.