A West Vancouver woman accused of keeping a slave in her British Properties home was acquitted of human trafficking Friday morning after a B.C. Supreme Court justice concluded the complainant likely made up the story to stay in Canada.
Mumtaz Ladha, 60, was found not guilty by Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon of all four charges she faced under the Immigration and Refugee Act.
“I am left with the conviction that the allegations made . . . are improbable,” Fenlon told a packed gallery of Ladha’s supporters as she delivered her verdict Friday morning.
“It appears far more likely that the complainant took advantages of Mrs. Ladha’s generosity in order to come to Canada and then took advantage of an opportunity she saw to remain in his country, showing a callous disregard for her benefactor and the truth in the process,” Fenlon said.
Ladha’s supporters broke into applause at the acquittal.
Outside the court, Ladha wept and hugged family and friends.
Ladha’s lawyer Eric Gottardi said outside the court Ladha is now finally free to get on with her life after enduring a long shadow of false accusations.
“It’s a very sad and tragic chapter for Mrs. Ladha that she’s happy to have behind her now,” said Gottardi. “It’s the ultimate nightmare, being falsely accused of very, very serious crimes.”
Ladha was charged in 2009 of illegally bringing a 26 year-old woman from Tanzania into the country and forcing her to work long hours doing domestic labour for free in the Ladha family’s West Vancouver mansion.
During the trial the woman — who under a publication ban cannot be named— testified that she was lured to Canada by a promise of a job in a beauty salon but instead found herself a slave in Ladha’s Bramwell Road home.
The woman said she worked up to 18 hours a day, washing windows, scrubbing floors and doing the Ladha family’s laundry.
Ladha family friends who testified for the defence said they never saw the woman doing domestic labour and said she appeared to be a guest in the Ladha home.
“This is a she-said, she-said case,” Fenlon said in delivering her verdict. “Someone is not telling the truth in these proceedings.”
In the end, the judge didn’t believe the complainant, pointing to the woman’s testimony about wearing a uniform every day that no other witnesses recalled, not being allowed to eat with the family when other witnesses testified she did and details like being forced to carry three sets of ski equipment around during a holiday at Whistler — which the judge said would likely be physically impossible for the woman.
Fenlon added Ladha is a “wealthy woman” who has employed paid housekeepers before and had no reason to bring an unpaid servant into the country.
The complainant, on the other hand, had a motive to lie so she could try to stay in Canada, said Fenlon.
When police told Ladha about the allegations, she gave an immediate statement that had “the unmistakable ring of truth” said Fenlon.
Outside court, Gottardi said he hopes the verdict will restore Ladha’s faith in the Canadian justice system.
