A judge recently handed down a seven-year prison sentence to a Toronto police officer who, along with his romantic partner at the time, forged the will of a dead man in an effort to steal his estate worth $834,000. 

On Tuesday, Superior Court Justice Sean Dunphy sentenced Const. Robert Konashewych, 40, and former public servant Adellene Balgobin, 36, to seven years each, calling their crime a "complex, highly planned, and long-lasting fraud operation." 

In June, the former lovers were convicted by a Toronto jury of fraud over $5,000. 

Balgobin was also found guilty of "committing a breach of trust" while working as a client services representative with the Ontario Public Guardian and Trustee, which delivers a range of services that safeguard the legal, personal, and financial interests of certain private individuals and estates. 

The 36-year-old public servant was involved in the management of Heinz Sommerfeld's personal affairs, whose Mississauga home was sold after he developed Alzheimer's. In 2017, Sommerfeld died at age 78 without a will, leaving Balgobin with access to information about his finances. 

Approximately one month after his death, the Ontario Public Guardian and Trustee received a copy of his will, which was allegedly signed in 2006, and named Konashewych as the beneficiary of Sommerfeld's estate. 

However, Konashewych's girlfriend, Candice Dixon, discovered a letter titled "Estate of Heinz Sommerfeld c/o Robert Konashewych," when the two broke up. The fake will was sent to the Toronto Police Service by Dixon and an investigation was subsequently launched. 

While prosecutors were seeking sentences between eight to nine years, defence lawyers asked the judge to hand down sentences between one to three years in the community. 

Since his arrest in 2020, Konashewych has been under paid suspension, but serving a prison sentence means the police officer will most likely lose his job.