Treasurer who stole $160k from Edmonton preschool given 18 months in jail

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Embezzling greater than $160,000 from an area preschool has landed an Edmonton man behind bars.

Kurt Edward Roy was sentenced earlier this month to 18 months in jail for working a years-long scheme to defraud Les Bouts d’Choux, a non-profit French immersion preschool in Mill Woods.

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Roy, 49, admitted to stealing $160,274.19 when he was the college’s de facto treasurer between 2012 and 2015. He instructed court docket he was within the throes of a cocaine and playing habit and has promised to pay restitution.

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Crimes like Roy’s undermine the volunteerism that helps Canadian society perform, Justice Steven Mandziuk mentioned in his sentencing resolution.

“The breach of belief has had a long-lasting impact, eroding parental confidence within the preschool, traumatizing these concerned in its operations and resulting in a marked decline in enrolment,” the choose wrote in his March 13 resolution.

“Mr. Roy was part of the group, making his betrayal all of the extra stunning and painful. The conclusion of his deception struck deeply, not solely due to the monetary loss but additionally as a result of it was brought on by somebody they’d trusted.”

Roy enrolled his daughters in Les Bouts d’Choux starting in 2011. The next yr, he started volunteering and was elected president of the mother or father board. Between 2012 and his firing in 2015, Roy held a number of positions together with educating assistant and was de facto treasurer at any time when the place was vacant.

In November 2015, the preschool’s full-time treasurer, Heather Clark, discovered there wasn’t sufficient cash within the group’s financial institution accounts to pay workers. She found Les Bouts d’Choux had didn’t file tax returns in every of the 2 years prior, and that its checking account was in overdraft. The financial institution instructed Clark it had been unable to achieve the account’s major contact, Roy.

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Clark confronted Roy, who instructed her Canada Income Company had mistakenly overcharged the preschool and that the cash was being returned. Roy later “doubled down,” telling the board of administrators about alleged conversations with CRA.

Just a few weeks later, Clark went to the financial institution and found no automated funds to CRA had been organized, regardless of Roy’s claims. Nor did the financial institution have the preschool’s deposit books, cheques and cheque stubs, nor had it made any deposits on the college’s behalf.

She additionally realized Les Bouts d’Choux’s instructor had not been paid.

Roy arrived to a gathering the subsequent day with an empty cheque e book. He claimed he had run out of cheques and that the stubs have been with the preschool’s accountant. He ultimately turned over the information, displaying 167 cheques had been made out to Roy or his spouse for reimbursements that had beforehand been paid. The board fired him later that day.

Thefts harm youngsters’s packages

Roy pleaded responsible to a rely of acquiring cash below false pretences and confronted as much as 10 years in jail.

Crown prosecutor Rayne Thompson argued Roy ought to to be incarcerated for 2 years, adopted by a two-year probation time period, together with an order to pay restitution.

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Sarah Terry, Roy’s defence lawyer, argued for a conditional sentence order, to be served locally. She mentioned Roy’s offending passed off whereas he was in lively habit and that the fallout has deterred him from any future theft.

Mandziuk reviewed different related circumstances and located Roy deserved jail time.

He accepted that Roy is remorseful, however discovered his dishonesty nonetheless required “effort, planning and deliberation” over a interval of years.

“Mr. Roy’s legal conduct pressured lecturers and workers to work longer hours and search emergency funding to cowl the monetary shortfall and pay salaries,” Mandziuk mentioned.

Whereas the college group rallied “to maintain the college afloat,” youngsters nonetheless suffered the results, with the college being pressured to curtail specialised packages, discipline journeys and sports activities.

“This positioned immense pressure on all these concerned,” Mandziuk wrote.

Roy was unemployed on the time of sentencing however was working towards a challenge administration certificates, court docket heard.

jwakefield@postmedia.com

twitter.com/jonnywakefield 

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