The Cochrane Bottle Depot, along with High River Bottle Depot and Strathmore Bottle Depot, have all been named in a lawsuit for alleged fraud.

Guy West, President of Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation (ABCRC) says the case has been under investigation for the past couple years.

"The investigation started in late 2014, our internal investigation concluded in 2015, and as stated in the release, the police investigation is ongoing."

As of July 12, ABCRC issued two Statements of Claim for separate incidents of inappropriate activity. In one, it is alleged that several ABCRC'c employees conspired with the owners of three depots to misappropriate funds amounting to roughly 16 million dollars. The other claim is against the Turner Valley Bottle Depot alleging approximately $41,859 in losses.

West says the funds have not affected any depot customers.

"Our role in the system is to collect from the bottle depots, to reimburse them the deposit that they paid to the consumer, we paid them annually commission established by the regulatory board;  it is within those payments those errors occurred."

West says in his 27 years they have never investigated any other depots. All depots have been served, comments West, and all parties involved will have 30 days to respond.

West says the alleged allegations have caused the ABCRC to make sure no more loopholes exist.

"We have implemented since discovering the problem, improved internal controls that apply to all the loads we receive from depots and we believe we have plugged all of the holes."

While the alleged fraud is certainly alarming, it has not caused a heightened response from ABCRC.

"We do regular checks on depots as a random course of business anyways, so I think the industry as a whole is a little more sensitive to the issue. But I won't say that we are looking at any other depot any differently than these three presently."

West says as far as he is aware, there is no impact on the consumer.

"The activity, the result of these actions was between the depot and the ABCRC and did not impact the depots service or relationship with their customers."

Cochrane Now has reached out to Jaswinder Atwal, Cochrane Bottle Depot owner, and are awaiting a call back.