Trial of alleged fraudster Philip Chancey postponed until 2025

Philip Chancey, a Mount Pearl man accused of defrauding investors of more than $350,000 in fraudulent business deals, won't see the inside of a courtroom until April 2025.

Chancey's trial on two fraud charges was scheduled to begin next Monday, but it was delayed due to the health of his attorney, Don Powell.

Citing “new evidence” coming to light, Chancey had filed a request for a postponement of his trial which Crown prosecutor Deidre Badcock planned to oppose at a hearing Monday morning.

However, after learning of Powell's health problems, she consented to the postponement on the condition that Chancey promise to waive his right to a speedy trial.

Chancey, on speakerphone in the courtroom, responded, “Yes, your honor” when asked if he agreed with the deal.

The next available dates were not until next April.

Chancey is accused of taking money from two investors in 2015 and 2016. In one case, trader Jerome Groves claims Chancey took more than $50,000 from him for the right to open an electric vehicle dealership .

Jerome Groves said he thought he had stumbled upon the deal of a lifetime when he met Philip Chancey. (Eddy Kennedy/CBC)

In the other, Tom Drodge, a terminally ill Clarenville man, gave Chancey all of his savings — about $300,000, according to his wife — for a similar promise involving an electric vehicle dealership.

No real activity materialized in either case. He was indicted in 2021 for the allegations involving Groves and in 2023 for the allegations involving Drodge. The two cases were consolidated into one trial.

In a statement to CBC News in 2019, Chancey said he was just a businessman who had fallen on hard times.

“Over the years I have tried to work and create various business opportunities. Yes, some have failed, I admit,” he wrote. “Across the country, many people have tried and failed. I am one of them. The key is to never give up.”

CBC Investigates profiled Groves' allegations in 2019 and uncovered a list of other complaints that did not result in criminal charges. Chancey was accused of taking $1 million from global leasing giant Cox Automotive, $600,000 from auction company Lyon & Sons and $400,000 from Hickman Automotive.

Court records also showed Chancey was taken to small claims court at least a dozen times, for amounts between $375 and $7,752.

He has incorporated businesses in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia since the 1980s.

The most recent, Twenty Twenty Capital Corporation, was incorporated in St. John's in 2020.

Although it was listed as not being in good standing in 2023, public records show Chancey filed annual reports for the past three years in January to bring the company back into good standing.

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