RCMP charge Manitoba pool builder accused of swindling customers out of thousands of dollars

A 50-year-old man has been charged with multiple counts of fraud after allegedly swindling people from across Canada and the United States out of thousands of dollars through his Manitoba-based pool company, police say.

Kurt Wittin was arrested and charged with nine counts of fraud over $5,000 on Nov. 5, following an investigation by Manitoba RCMP's cyber and financial crime unit, police said in a news release Friday.

He had been under investigation since 2023, after his pool company, Seventeen Pools, was the subject ofnumerous fraud complaints, police said.

Peoplefrom across Canada and the United Statessaid they sent payment to Wittin's company for products they never received, police said.

Wittinhas been released from custody with conditionsand will appear in court in future.

There may be additional victims or information about Wittin's alleged fraud that police are not yet aware of, RCMP said.

Wittin was at the centre of a CBC Marketplace report published in May 2023, which heard from several of his customers who claimed to have been conned out of tens of thousands of dollars.

Some of them said Wittin's appearance on the popular HGTV show Fixer to Fabulous in 2022 drew them to make a purchase from Seventeen Pools.

Wittin has made changes toboth his personal and business names, Marketplace reported.

Anyone with information about Wittin or his companies Seventeen Pools, 204 Container Pools and Kustom Container Builders is asked to contact their local RCMP detachment.