Winners shoplifter gets 15 months in jail

A Crown attorney highlighted the rising number of thefts at Brandon’s Winners during a sentencing hearing for a woman convicted of stealing from the off-price retail store three months in a row.

“Winners in Brandon is known as being one of the most targeted businesses in all of the province of Manitoba,” Crown attorney Sarah Kok said in Brandon provincial court on Monday.

Amanda Remezoff, 45, was sentenced to almost a year and three months in jail for three counts of theft under $5,000. She pleaded guilty to two of the counts and was convicted of the third after a trial.

Kok read out the facts, starting with the first theft from Oct. 18, 2024.

A Winners employee called Brandon Police Service about two women shoplifting in the store and recognized both of them, including Remezoff.

Security footage showed the women grabbing several items and putting them in a shopping cart. Kok said the woman Remezoff was with was also putting merchandise in her purse.

The pair continued to walk around the store, grabbing items, including clothing, jewelry and makeup, for roughly 20 minutes.

Kok said Remezoff left the store by herself with no items in her hands but didn’t pay for the items she put in the other woman’s cart.

“The total estimated loss … was approximately $700,” Kok said. “We can’t give an exact monetary value unless everything is recovered, and in this case, nothing was recovered.”

Remezoff was already gone by the time police arrived, and they couldn’t find her.

On Nov. 11, Remezoff and a different woman co-accused stole items from Winners in a similar fashion, with the total price of stolen merchandise adding up to around $4,200, Kok said.

The items were not recovered.

She took the second matter to trial, and despite her leaving the store without any merchandise, she was found guilty because of her participation.

“I appreciate that Miss Remezoff believed that she wasn’t being involved, but certainly as a party to the offence, she was very strongly implicated.”

On Dec. 20, a loss prevention officer at Winners reported that a man and woman were shoplifting and shared photos of them with police.

Police immediately went to the Winners and found Remezoff with almost $800 worth of merchandise, Kok said.

The store’s surveillance footage showed Remezoff putting items in her purse while the man pushed the cart. Kok said Remezoff “strangely” paid for one item.

“You physically see her place items on her. She ends up leaving the store wearing a stolen item, having paid for one item,” Kok said.

Remezoff claimed that she thought the man, who was also her partner, had already paid for the items, even though the security footage showed them walk out together and he made no attempt to pay.

Kok said Remezoff’s criminal record, which contains 11 prior convictions for theft under $5,000, and the value of the thefts are aggravating factors. She asked the court to impose a total sentence of 450 days in custody followed by a period of unsupervised probation.

“Denunciation and deterrence are paramount here. The sentence not only needs to send a message to Miss Remezoff but also to all members of the public that these kinds of thefts are taken very seriously,” Kok said. “Miss Remezoff appeared to have an attitude that she was getting away with it, so she was continuing to do that.”

Defence lawyer Bob Harrison asked for a sentence of the time Remezoff has already served, which is the equivalent of 254 days, and shed light on Remezoff’s upbringing.

He said Remezoff’s grandparents raised her, and she was exposed to violence during her childhood. When she got older, she experienced several violent intimate relationships that Harrison said led to her addiction issues, adding that she was using crystal meth during the thefts.

“Nobody makes good decisions when they’re under any type of drug.”

He said she has also been struggling since the death of her partner, who was one of the co-accused, in July.

Before her sentencing, Remezoff said she was thankful for her time in custody because without it she wouldn’t have received the support or programming she has.

“I didn’t know what it meant to be in a community. I didn’t know how to be a person, I guess you could say. I’ve always done drugs,” she said. “Now, you won’t see me anymore.”

Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said she was happy to hear about the progress Remezoff has made while in custody.

“Although I do not like the way you’ve been behaving, I do not like the offences that you’re before the court on, I have a lot of sympathy in terms of where you come from and how you ended up where you are,” she said.

Hewitt-Michta went along with the Crown’s suggested sentence and Remezoff will have 196 days going forward. Hewitt-Michta also made a stand-alone order that Remezoff pay almost $5,000 to Winners for restitution.

» sanderson@bandonsun.com