Timothy Craig Durkin, who rose to infamy in Greater Victoria for his role in a series of legal disputes with the former owners of Sooke Harbour House, will be deported following his fight in federal court.
In November 2023, a decision was made to deport Durkin from Canada based on organized criminality, following his citizenship application filed in 2019. In response, he attempted to overturn the ruling by seeking a judicial review.
Madame Justice Negar Azmudeh dismissed Durkin’s bid on Feb. 21, ruling that the Canada Border Services Agency’s decision to issue a deportation order was reasonable. She found that many of Durkin’s concerns had been adequately addressed, not adequately supported or could be dealt with outside the country.
Durkin arrived in Canada with his mother at the age of one. Now 73, he remains a citizen of the United Kingdom.
He frequently cited health issues, his pending ministerial relief application, his long-time establishment in Canada, an inability to support himself financially and his intention to challenge the refusal of his citizenship application as justification against deportation.
However, in January 2023, the Immigration Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada found Durkin’s request for citizenship inadmissible, ruling that he and three others had orchestrated a sophisticated Ponzi scheme in Alabama between 2009 and 2013. As a result, a deportation order was issued.
Durkin and two others were charged with wire fraud in the U.S. in May 2013, although the charges were withdrawn in 2022.
In 2023, the B.C. Securities Commission imposed $1.6 million in total penalties against Durkin and his company, SHH Holdings Ltd., for lying about ownership of the Sooke Harbour House to convince a Chinese citizen to invest in the property.
Durkin was also ordered to pay $4 million in damages to the former owners of Sooke Harbour House following what a Supreme Court judge described as a “six-year odyssey of lies, excuses, threats, intimidation and bullying.”
Sooke Harbour House closed under foreclosure but has since reopened under new ownership.
