Coquitlam Mounties have confirmed they received a formal complaint last week from the city of Port Coquitlam about a former employee who stole from the city.
The ex-staffer, who quit in March after confessing to stealing $175,000 in taxpayer funds by buying tools and small machines for resale, is now under investigation by the detachment's Major Crime Section.
An RCMP spokesperson told The Tri-City News, which broke the story of the theft in April, that the police team will spend several months talking to municipal managers and staff and the former employee as well as gathering evidence and reviewing the results of the city's forensic review before any charges are recommended to Crown counsel.
Should prosecutors choose to proceed with charges, the former employee's name will be publicly disclosed in court papers. To date, the city has yet to reveal his or her name, the department the person worked in or length of service.
PoCo's chief administrative officer, John Leeburn, told The Tri-City News the municipality was advised by lawyers to conduct an internal probe before seeking police help in an attempt to get the stolen money back; he confirmed all the funds have since been returned.
It's not the first time a Canadian municipality or political organization has dealt with allegations of employee theft or fraud. For example:
• In March, Chilliwack BC Liberal MLA John Martin fired his constituency assistant after the worker admitted to taking thousands of dollars from the office; RCMP are now involved.
• In February, the city of Abbotsford and its police board launched a lawsuit to reclaim $192,200 they allege was embezzled by a former worker. Shelley Dallas Mickens (also known as Boyce) is alleged to have taken the cash in her role as finance director of the Abbotsford Police Department — a job she held from April 1999 to June 2016, when she retired. Mickens has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit nor have the allegations been proven in court.
• Last October, a former assistant to Victoria-Swan Lake BC NDP MLA Rob Fleming pleaded guilty to two counts of theft over $5,000 over a six-year period. In March, Marni Ruth Offman, 25, was sentenced to 18 months of house arrest for stealing $120,420 and was ordered to complete 200 hours of community service (since then, the government has changed protocols in tracking MLA money, with more oversight from the legislature).
• In 2011, a former administrator of a northern rural municipality in Saskatchewan was ordered to pay back the $242,000 she stole from taxpayers over two years. Linda Purves, 48, was also given a two-year community sentence for fraud.
Under Section 334 (a) of the Criminal Code of Canada, conviction on a charge of theft over $5,000 carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.
jcleugh@tricitynews.com
