Woman pleads guilty to forgery
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/11/2019 (2167 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
By Erin DeBooy
A woman involved in a scheme cashing multiple fraudulent cheques stolen from a business has been given the opportunity to earn back a clean record.
Danica Wood, 21, pleaded guilty in Brandon provincial court on Thursday to forgery.
“Fraudulent activity and possession of stolen goods in Brandon is becoming way too common of an offence,” Crown attorney Yaso Mathu told the court. “People’s property and their rights to protection from fraud need to be taken seriously.”
On Oct. 26, a man attended Brandon police station to report that fraudulent cheques belonging to his business account had been cashed, Mathu said.
The man said he first noticed odd activity on Oct. 24 when he checked his business account and noticed a $400 cheque had been withdrawn.
“He thought this was odd as he does not write $400 cheques, so he looked into it a little further and noticed more cheques withdrawn,” Mathu said.
The man went to his bank and learned that five cheques had been written to different people at varying amounts totalling $3,600.
During the summer, the man’s briefcase had been stolen, Mathu said, and it was believed some business cheques may have been inside.
One of the cheques was made out to Wood and cashed for $825, Mathu said, and she admitted to police that she participated in falsifying the documents.
Wood’s lawyer, Ryan Fawcett, said she only signed the cheque, and that her co-accused was responsible for filling out the rest of the information.
Wood’s co-accused did not have a bank account and convinced Wood to cash the cheques in hers, Fawcett said. Wood knew it was wrong but was assured by her co-accused that she would not get caught.
“Ms. Wood was taken advantage of in the situation, and she’s admitted her mistake here,” Fawcett said.
As this is Wood’s first offence, Mathu said a conditional discharge would be appropriate so long as Wood paid back the $825 that she profited from the cashed cheque.
Fawcett agreed a conditional discharge would be appropriate, but argued Wood did not receive the total amount from the cheque from her co-accused and only profited $150.
Judge Donovan Dvorak sentenced Wood to a one-year conditional discharge — giving her the chance to earn back a clean record by adhering to supervised probation for one year.
Wood was also ordered to repay $825 to the victim.
» edebooy@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @erindebooy