Conditional discharge for aide who used Fairview resident’s credit card

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This article was published 18/10/2023 (1100 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A woman who fraudulently used a Fairview Personal Care Home resident’s credit card while working as a health care aide was sentenced to a conditional discharge in court on Monday.

Jessica Twerdochlib, 27, pleaded guilty to using an elderly man’s credit card to make $2,300 worth of purchases back in January. Though the offence would normally receive a fine or jail time, the Crown could not prove a breach of trust component of the offence, and so agreed with the defence for a conditional discharge sentence with community service hours.

“I sincerely believe that all of us are, for the most part, better than the worst decision that we ever make in our life,” Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said, accepting the lawyer’s recommended sentence.

Crown attorney Yaso Mathu read the evidence for the charge in court.

In February, police received a call from the daughter of a resident at Fairview who reported that there had been fraudulent charges made over the course of the past month on her father’s credit card. There were multiple charges from various places including T-Birds Food Fun Games, the Beer Warehouse, Petro Canada, Giant Tiger and the Liquor Mart. Police used video surveillance from the purchase locations to identify Twerdochlib.

After she was arrested, Mathu said that Twerdochlib told the police that she found the credit card in the Fairview parking lot and when she found out that it was a Fairview resident’s credit card, she felt terrible, cut up the card and disposed of it.

However, Mathu said that the resident’s daughter had a different story. The daughter said that it was unlikely that the credit card could have been in the parking lot, because her father is immobile and would likely have not left the residence, meaning the credit card would have been taken from her father.

Hewitt-Michta pressed both lawyers on their recommendation for a conditional discharge for the woman and said that a breach of trust situation usually attracts a heavier sentence.

Mathu said the Crown could not prove it was a breach of trust because there were two different versions of events about how Twerdochlib obtained the credit card.

Twerdochlib maintained her version of events in court.

“I understand the lack of belief, but I really did find it in the parking lot, I would never have deliberately taken it from a client,” Twerdochlib said. “That doesn’t justify me from taking it from anybody. There’s no justifying it at all, but I’m just so sorry.”

Twerdochlib’s lawyer, Anthony Dawson, told the court that his client has paid the money back in full and a cheque will be issued to the victims. Dawson also said that at the time, his client had a botched dental surgery, which left her in pain and “not herself.”

The defence lawyer said that Twerdochlib is very remorseful, evidenced by an apology letter that she wrote to the court, and has no prior criminal record. Twerdochlib said she doesn’t plan on returning to work as a health care aide, though she said she originally got into that line of work because she loves to help people.

Hewitt-Michta said that given the high amount of charges on the credit card, if the Crown had been able to prove a breach of trust, Twerdochlib would possibly have received a jail sentence that afternoon. She reminded Twerdochlib of how fortunate she was to be getting a chance to earn back a clean record (a conditional discharge means a finding of guilt is made, but no conviction is entered on a criminal record).

Ultimately, the judge sentenced Twerdochlib to a conditional discharge with 50 hours of community service work as well as a term of probation.

“I hope that this is going to be a one-time very bad decision on your part [and] that you’re going to learn from it, and I’m never going to see you here again,” Hewitt-Michta said. “And if I see you — I’m here all the time — I won’t forget you and I’ll fix the mistake if I see you again.”

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