An Uber driver from Ontario has been found guilty of defrauding the Town of Bridgewater and Dexter Construction of nearly a half-million dollars.

Judge Paul Scovil found Ayoola Ajibade of Brampton, Ont., guilty of a single count of fraud in Bridgewater provincial court on Monday.

During the two-day trial in August, the court heard how in October 2019, the accounts payable clerk at the Town of Bridgewater received an email claiming to be from the divisional comptroller at Dexter Construction seeking the required forms to set up electronic fund transfers to a Scotiabank account.

The clerk recognized the name of the Dexter construction employee, whom the town deals with regularly, and sent along the forms.

The forms were filled out for payment to be made to Ajibade’s Scotiabank account at a branch in Brampton and returned to the town.

Dexter employees testified at the trial that the company never sent such an email and they don’t use Scotiabank.

A few days later, the town transferred a payment of $490,930.43 for services rendered by Dexter to Ajibade’s account along with two other large payments.

The day after the transfer’s arrival, Ajibade visited the Brampton Scotiabank branch and attempted to make a $180,000 wire transfer to a numbered company in China.

The bank teller put a hold on the transfer, being suspicious of the amounts involved, and notified the branch's assistant manager, Daljit Singh.

Looking at the amounts involved and Ajibade’s occupation as an Uber driver, the bank told him he would need an invoice from the company in China to complete the transfer and meanwhile contacted both the town and Dexter Construction.