Man charged with performing fake weddings, could be more victims
Posted August 31, 2016 9:10 am.
Last Updated August 31, 2016 9:42 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Toronto police have arrested a man accused of performing fake weddings and there could be more victims.
The accused did not have the authority, or a licence, police allege. He officiated at weddings across the province over a three-year period, from August 2013 to July 2016.
Paul Cogan, 69, also known as Paul Martin, was arrested on Tuesday. He is charged with solemnizing a marriage without authority, fraud under $5,000, forgery, personation with intent, and uttering a forged document.
Anne-Marie Flanagan of the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services said that 48 couples have been impacted from this and Service Ontario will be reaching out directly to all those couples.
“During our investigation we did discover that this individual was registered in the past,” Flanagan said. “We were notified by his former religious body in 2013 that he was no longer associated with them and his registration was cancelled at that time. He was then recognized by another religious body in July 2016 and became able to perform marriages again.”
“The ministry has since canceled his registration on August 30,” Flanagan said.
Family lawyer Donald Baker said the people married by Cogan are no legally married.
“I would say they’re not legally married. This fellow did not get legal marriage licenses and that’s the beginning of the end,” he said.
“If you go through a ceremony in good faith, that’s the key, then you’re married. The only thing you don’t have to do if you go down the road and you split – you don’t have to get divorced.
Prideful Weddings says on their website and social media pages that “Paul is a spiritual minister and as a Ontario licensed Wedding Officiant, he has performed over 2000 wedding ceremonies across Ontario.”
CityNews did a search of the images on Prideful Weddings in Google and found that many of them are other individual’s photos including Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian on their wedding and also an image of a couple kissing by a wedding cake that is seen on multiple other sites.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police.
