An unlicensed optician who for years illegally prescribed and then sold eyeglasses to customers across the GTA has been sentenced to one year in jail for civil contempt.
Bruce Bergez — founder of the Great Glasses chain of eyeglass stores — was sentenced to jail with no chance of parole by a Superior Court Justice in Hamilton in early October.
Bergez’s wife and business partner, Joanne, is to be sentenced for her part in the business next year upon her husband’s release.
Before being sentenced, the husband and wife from Dundas, Ont. had been ordered to pay $15.9 million in fines for not complying with three earlier court orders that found the couple was violating the Regulated Health Professions Act.
That act states that eyeglasses and contacts must be prescribed by an optometrist or physician and dispensed by an authorized health professional, such as a licensed optician.
Great Glasses — which has 23 locations across the GTA and southern Ontario and advertises free eye exams and discount glasses — was not following those rules and was instead using a diagnostic computer for its eye exams.
Brian Moher, a lawyer for the College of Optometrists, had been pursuing Bergez in court for eight years.
Moher says that though he found no evidence that anyone was ever harmed by the way Great Glasses conducted its business, Bergez’s contempt for the court orders that were placed against him was cause for concern.
It was that contempt, and the failure of millions of dollars in fines to stop Bergez from violating the Regulated Health Professions Act that led Justice J. Turnbull to sentence Bergez to jail.
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