P.E.I. woman gets jail for defrauding $110,059 from employer

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CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Defrauding her employer of greater than $110,000 over a seven-year interval has led to jail time for a P.E.I. lady.

“The conduct of the offender was intentional, repeated over an extended time frame and resulted in a major loss,” stated Justice Jonathan Coady on Sept. 27 in P.E.I. Supreme Court docket at sentencing for Kimberly Daybreak Heffernan.

“On this case, the ethical blameworthiness of the offender is excessive.”

Heffernan, 53, of Stratford, P.E.I., pleaded responsible to a cost of fraud over $5,000 on April 11.

Assertion of info

In response to an agreed assertion of info, Heffernan started working for Engineering Applied sciences Canada in Stratford on Feb. 2, 2012, as an accounting technician and administrative assistant. Heffernan’s position with the corporate included monetary duties akin to worker payroll and taking good care of enterprise bills.

On Jan. 13, 2022, Heffernan resigned from the corporate. On Feb. 8, 2022, a couple of month after Heffernan resigned, the corporate’s proprietor, Kelly Galloway, went to the Stratford RCMP detachment to report that her former worker had stolen cash.

It was found that Heffernan had made 129 unauthorized transfers totalling $110,059.34 from the corporate’s checking account to her personal private checking account between Feb. 2, 2015, and Jan. 13, 2022.

Sentencing listening to

At a Sept. 8 sentencing listening to, Crown legal professional Bridget Morriscey requested 14 months in jail and probation for the offence whereas Heffernan’s lawyer Brendan Hubley requested a conditional sentence.

Hubley famous that Heffernan has had a lifetime of experiencing abuse, psychological well being points and alcohol dependancy. When it comes to the offence, Hubley defined that, not like another fraud circumstances, the cash wasn’t used for lavish journeys or presents or renovations to a property. 

“That is clearly not a greed case. It is a supplemental revenue case,” Hubley stated.

Sufferer influence assertion

Galloway learn a sufferer influence assertion on the sentencing listening to and mentioned the monetary penalties she confronted from the fraud, together with utilizing private funds and borrowing cash from members of the family to cowl monetary shortfalls. She additionally mentioned the stress and emotional prices of the monetary, legal and insurance coverage investigations in addition to the implications the fraud had with the Canada Income Company. 

“(Heffernan) wreaked havoc on my small enterprise by persevering with to steal cash and making convoluted bookkeeping entries leading to monetary disarray that has been pricey to repair,” Galloway stated.

“Emotional and operational prices of this fiasco have been time-consuming and have additional taken my focus and a focus away from different necessary enterprise actions.”

Sentence

Somewhat than impose a conditional sentence, Coady sentenced Heffernan to 10 months in jail, two years of probation, a $200 sufferer surcharge and ordered her to pay $110,059.34 in restitution to the sufferer.

Heffernan can also be prohibited for 3 years from in search of or acquiring employment or volunteer alternatives that contain being able of authority over one other individual’s cash, helpful safety (akin to shares, bonds and land titles) or property.

Since Heffernan wants employment to pay restitution, Coady allowed an exemption to the three-year prohibition as long as her probation officer is happy that any future employer has full information of the loss brought about on this case and has acquired a replica of the agreed assertion of info.

Heffernan didn’t have a previous legal document.

Terrence McEachern is a justice reporter with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. He may be reached by e mail at [email protected] and may be adopted on X @terry_mcn.