TORONTO – An Ontario man who acted as the trustee for his mother’s estate has been sentenced to intermittent jail time for contempt of court after repeatedly failing to account for more than half a million dollars in inheritance money designated for his three minor children1. In a decision released September 12, 2025, Justice M.D. Faieta of the Superior Court of Justice ordered Wayne Gardner to serve a six-day jail term and to pay back the full amount of the estate, valued at $583,407.53, into court.
The case involves the estate of Tracy Gardner, who passed away leaving her son, Wayne Gardner, as the estate trustee. According to her will, the entire residue of her estate was to be divided equally among her three grandchildren, who are Mr. Gardner’s own children. A certificate appointing Mr. Gardner as the Estate Trustee was issued on March 17, 2017. The legal proceedings were initiated by the Office of the Children’s Lawyer (OCL), which acts as a litigation guardian to protect the interests of minors in court matters.
The court documents detail a multi-year effort by the OCL to obtain a formal accounting of the estate’s administration from Mr. Gardner. Shortly after his appointment in 2017, Mr. Gardner’s counsel provided the OCL with a financial summary indicating the estate’s net value was approximately $583,407.53. The primary assets included two condominiums in Toronto, located at 3233 Eglinton Avenue East and 3420 Eglinton Avenue East, as well as some investments. However, the OCL soon discovered that both properties had been sold in the spring of 2017, one on March 31 and the other on June 1. The proceeds from these sales were not secured for the beneficiaries.
After years passed without a formal accounting, the OCL commenced a court application in December 2021 to compel Mr. Gardner to fulfill his duties. This resulted in a court order issued on January 7, 2022, which explicitly required Mr. Gardner to file an Application to Pass Accounts within 60 days, setting a deadline of March 21, 2022. Passing accounts is a formal legal process where a trustee presents a detailed financial report of their management of an estate to the court and beneficiaries for approval.
Mr. Gardner was served with this order by mail and email on January 19, 2022, but he failed to comply with the deadline. The OCL followed up with a series of letters demanding compliance on April 4, 2022, June 9, 2022, August 4, 2022, August 4, 2023, and September 7, 2023. The final letter was personally served on Mr. Gardner, yet he did not file the required accounting or provide a meaningful response.
Faced with continued non-compliance, the OCL took the serious step of filing a motion to have Mr. Gardner found in contempt of court. He was personally served with the motion record on January 26, 2024. Despite this, he did not appear at the initial contempt hearing. On April 13, 2024, Justice Faieta found Mr. Gardner in contempt, satisfying the three-part legal test which requires that the court order was clear, the person had actual knowledge of it, and they intentionally failed to comply. The judge inferred both knowledge and intent from the circumstances. Mr. Gardner was given another opportunity to purge his contempt by filing the accounts within 60 days, but he again failed to do so.
At a sentencing hearing on September 11, 2025, Mr. Gardner provided an explanation for his actions. He stated that in 2017, most of the proceeds from the sale of the two condominiums were used to purchase a house in Barrie. The property was registered in his name and that of his then wife, Erika Weavers. He explained that they signed a separation agreement in 2018, in which he relinquished his title to the Barrie house to Ms. Weavers. That property was eventually sold in January 2023 for $807,000, but according to Mr. Gardner, the whereabouts of the equity from that sale, which originated from the estate, are unknown. He told the court that he believed all the estate funds, including a separate $100,000 bequest he had received, were spent on the Barrie house, repairs, furniture, tools, and two trips to Europe taken by his ex-wife. He stated his belief that no estate funds remained.
Mr. Gardner also told the court about his personal struggles, stating that he spiraled into alcoholism following his separation and was drinking heavily between 2019 and 2021. He has since been sober for three and a half years, lives in a basement apartment, and works as a building manager. He acknowledged his contempt of the court order but asked not to be incarcerated, fearing he would lose his job. He submitted that he was unsophisticated regarding the obligations of an estate trustee and claimed he was unaware of the January 2022 order because he had moved.
In his sentencing decision, Justice Faieta highlighted the importance of deterrence. He cited previous case law stating that the primary purpose of sentencing in contempt proceedings is to ensure court orders are respected. He adopted a statement emphasizing that proper penalties serve as a notice to the public, particularly to the specific community of fiduciaries such as estate trustees, guardians, and attorneys. The judge quoted a passage stating, “When money held in trust disappears, the person who controls it has a legal obligation to account for its administration, if ordered to do so. Failure to so account is egregious conduct.”
Justice Faieta identified several aggravating factors in Mr. Gardner’s case, including his fiduciary position, the vulnerability of the beneficiaries who are his own minor children, and his continued failure to provide an accounting even after being personally served with the court order in January 2024. Based on these factors, the judge concluded that a period of imprisonment was appropriate.
The final court order imposes a six-day term of imprisonment, to be served in two-day blocks on alternating weekends, commencing October 18, 2025. A warrant for Mr. Gardner’s arrest will be issued and enforced by the Toronto Police Service. Furthermore, Mr. Gardner is ordered to pay the full $583,407.53 into an account with the Accountant of the Superior Court of Justice. He is required to make minimum payments of $3,000 every six months, starting November 1, 2025. He has also been ordered to finally purge his contempt by taking reasonable steps to administer the estate and providing the required accounting by September 11, 2026. Failure to comply with these terms could result in further sentencing. Finally, Mr. Gardner must personally pay the OCL’s legal costs, fixed at $14,000, within 90 days. These costs are not to be paid from any estate funds.
Read about more real estate cases here.
