EX-COP BOSS STOLE CRIME CASH: OPP

Former Hamilton police Inspector Rick Wills is charged with stealing
crime money destined for public coffers and directly from three
in-house operational funds, the OPP said yesterday.

Wills, 54, who faces almost four dozen charges of fraud, theft,
breach of trust, concealment, breaching court orders and forgery, was
released on bail Thursday.

"The investigation is continuing, and there is a chance that further
charges are forthcoming," said OPP Detective Inspector Greg Walton yesterday.

Wills, the former commander of the force's top crime units, including
homicide, intelligence and vice and drugs, is accused of pilfering
more than $57,000, beginning as far back as 2003, according to a
court document outlining the charges.

Wills is alleged to have fraudulently taken more than $46,000 out of
a special City of Hamilton account that holds crime cash.

"It's one fund where all the funds seized by police will go, and how
they are dispersed depends on what comes out of the judicial
process," Walton said.

A judge orders crime cash to be either forfeited to public coffers or
returned to the original owner, the victim or a lawyer to pay legal
fees, Walton said.

Wills had control of that account and is charged with ordering
$46,530 worth of cheques made out to eight people, then forging their
signatures and depositing the money into his personal bank accounts,
Walton said.

According to the court document outlining the charges, the money had
already been ordered turned over to the Crown.

Wills is also charged with stealing directly from Hamilton police
operational funds he controlled while head of the Investigative
Services Division.

"There were some thefts from three funds -- the seized property
management fund, an informant fund and the Investigative Services
Fund," Walton said.

Provincial police allege that in one case, Wills took $1,000 from the
Investigative Services Fund and issued a fraudulent receipt with
another Hamilton police officer's name on it. In another instance, he
allegedly did not turn over thousands in cash seized along with drug
packaging, lottery gift packs and a large knife in a sheath.

Wills was one of the Hamilton police service's highest ranking and
highest profile officers until his sudden retirement under a cloud last summer.

Hamilton police Chief Brian Mullan would not comment on the specifics
of the case yesterday.

"We called the OPP to do a job when suspicions were developed," he
said. "The investigation itself was low-key in as much as many people
in this organization had no clue it was going on. That was intentional.

"It came to many, no question, as a shock, and I can appreciate that
reaction given the history that Rick Wills had with us."

OPP investigators are asking anyone with information to call the
Cayuga detachment at 905-772-3322.

Wills was released on $20,000 bail and returns to court on May 28.