NO DRUG DEALING: DOC'S STAFFER

Receptionist Denies Blame

A CASH-STRAPPED receptionist for a Toronto doctor accused of trafficking
painkillers was herself accused yesterday of being the culprit behind the
scheme that peddled up to 10,000 pills weekly. Yasmin Van Maurik denied the
suggestions by defence lawyer David Porter that she was writing
prescriptions using the stationery of her boss, Dr. Ravi Devgan in 2001.

Van Maurik -- a former drug addict who told the jury she has been clean for
13 years -- admitted she never phoned police in July 2001 when she
suspected Devgan was trafficking due to the "exorbitant" size and number of
prescriptions he was writing.

But Van Maurik, who was convicted of welfare fraud and was paying back the
$40,000-plus she bilked taxpayers out of in the '90s, told the jury she
stayed on with Devgan's office for two months after a criminal lawyer
friend assured her she wasn't breaking the law. However, she was told she
should drop the job as soon as possible.

Van Maurik testified she quit Devgan's practice in September 2001 to work
for Devgan's alleged drug-dealing partner, Toronto paralegal Sandy Hutchens.

"Of all of the places in Toronto to work, you went to someone whom you
believed was involved in drug dealing?" Porter asked.

FORCED INTO SILENCE

"He offered to pay me $1,500 a week for bookkeeping and the doctor had put
me into financial duress for a long period of time," Van Maurik said.

"I was also interested in paralegal work, and have taken courses on
becoming one since then."

She explained that Devgan had her pay his office expenses through her bank
accounts. He was tardy in reimbursing her and had trouble paying his staff.

The outstanding debt Devgan owed her forced her into silence because it
"compromised my financial situation," she said.

After she switched jobs, she testified she smelled crack being smoked at
Hutchens' office but nonetheless stayed until his business closed in May 2002.

Devgan, 56, has pleaded not guilty to trafficking and possession for the
purpose of trafficking oxycodone -- sold under the trade names Percocet and
Percodan -- between Aug. 8 and Sept. 25, 2001.