Alex Alexidze’s sophisticated government fraud scheme fell apart in January 2023 when he walked out of the Riverbank Co-op in Outlook, Sask., with $300 worth of stolen groceries.
That misstep would eventually lead to the Russian national being convicted of defrauding the Saskatchewan government of more than $150,000.
The Co-op’s manager confronted Alexidze, who claimed he lived close by and had the receipt at home. The manager didn’t force the issue, instead taking down the licence from the Ford Expedition that Alexidze was driving and contacting RCMP.
The plates belonged to a rental from Saskatoon.
Two months later, Saskatoon police were contacted by a Social Services fraud investigator from Alberta who said she had an open file on a man using a series of aliases to apply for income support.
“Ultimately, when police ran the names through CPIC, they determined that there was an active warrant here in Saskatchewan from the Outlook RCMP,” prosecutor Carol Carlson said Wednesday in Saskatoon provincial court.
Police went to the Saskatoon apartment address used for the Expedition rental. There, they met Alex Alexidze.
“The officers went to the door of apartment 438 and spoke to the man who answered the door,” Carlson said. “He asked, ‘How did you find me?'”
Police got a search warrant and eventually uncovered a trove of documents establishing the identities of almost 20 different people. They contacted Social Services and learned that all of those people were getting income support.
Alexidze pleaded guilty to fraud charges in March.
On Wednesday, Judge Bruce Bauer accepted a joint sentencing submission from Carlson and defence lawyer Ian Wagner. Alexidze was sentenced to two years less a day and ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution.
“My math indicates that you were, over the 25 months that this was in progress, averaging $6,000 a month in government money,” he said.
“You have done it through a deliberate and sophisticated plan … that required some effort by you, in terms of making up names, discovering and exploiting the weaknesses of the security system, taking advantage of the pandemic processes which allowed applications to be conducted online.”
With credit for time in custody, Alexidze has about two months left behind bars.
Court also learned he has legally changed his name to Alex Rowe.