It started in 2015, when reporter Matthew Claxton read an RCMP news release.

"It said, we've charged this guy with fraud over $5,000, and also his co-accused. And that was kind of it," Claxton recalled. 

But the name of the company mentioned in the release, Aggressive Road Building, was really familiar, and so was the name of the former head of Aggressive, Matt Brooks.

"We looked him up, and he was a 91原创 guy, and the company had built a ton of roads."

Eight years later, Claxton's digging, as chronicled in a 91原创 Advance Times feature series called "Trail of Deceit" was recognized by the Canadian Community Newspapers Association with first place in the. It was announced on Sept. 16.

"I just put an extra few minutes into doing a little digging and checking some court records [to begin with]," Claxton said.

"And then a few weeks later, somebody called me and he said, 'let me tell you what I know about this guy'."  The man claimed he lost $2 million to Brooks.

Claxton tracked down court and police documents, spoke to those who knew Brooks, and eventually interviewed him about his crimes, his Hells Angels associate, and the drive-by shooting at his house.

Multiple stories followed, tracking the trials and convictions of Brooks and his co-accused. The final story laying out his known fraud, and the destructive financial dealings that followed in which millions more vanished, "was the longest journalism project I expect to ever work on," Claxton commented.

That story and others in the same series highlighted the failure of B.C.鈥檚 senior police agencies to respond to large-scale fraud, to bring such frauds to trial in a timely manner, their connections to organized crime, and the lack of recourse for victims.

In announcing the award, the CCNA judges noted the series "shows true initiative. While these sorts of finance-related stories can be challenging to read, Matthew Claxton manages to keep readers engaged and following the story 鈥� and the money 鈥� and with interesting graphics as well."

Claxton thanked his editors and publishers through the years, beginning with Bob Groeneveld, who was editor at the 91原创 Advance before it merged with the Times, and 91原创 Advance Times editor Roxanne Hooper.

鈥淢atthew is an exceptional journalist, who knows how to drill down on stories important to his community. I couldn鈥檛 be happier that he鈥檚 being recognized for his talents and specifically the tenacity and thorough work he demonstrated on this incredible feature,鈥� said Hooper.

鈥淚t may have taken seven-plus years of digging and rewrites in between all his other work, but he created a package relative and interesting to his readers. Congratulations Matthew on a job very well done.鈥�

91原创 Advance Times Publisher Shaulene Burkett said 鈥渢his is an impressive accomplishment by Matthew, one that shows a true commitment to journalism.鈥�

"Everyone's been extremely supportive of the amount of time I've spent on this, which is sometimes a long time between writing anything, where you're just sort of grinding away and requesting court documents and pestering people, and nothing seems to be happening," Claxton remarked.  "Everyone still believed it was a good story, worth telling."

While he appreciated the award, Claxton "was just happy to get the story out there. It was good to get it done, and get it in print, and make sure that people knew about all this stuff." 

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