On Tuesday, Former finance director of Fort McPherson Ina Koe was sentenced to two years less a day in jail and ordered to repay the almost $400,000 she defrauded from the hamlet.
Koe pleaded guilty in May for fleecing the community of $399,287.02. The judge ordered her to pay back the amount to the hamlet’s insurer.
Crown lawyer Anne Piché told
CBC News that the case is, by far, the largest one involving fraud against a hamlet in the N.W.T. She also noted that a restitution order was appropriate.
"It is a lot of money but the message has to be sent that crime does not pay," Piché remarked. "She is a person who has been employed in the past and she is still young. There is some possibility she will earn money in the future and pay at least some of the money she took."
Originally, Koe was charged with two counts of fraud over $5,000 amounting to $424,932.59, as well as one count of breach of public trust. She reserved her pleas in May for the second fraud charge and the breach of public trust, but the Crown has since stayed those charges.
The RCMP began investigating Fort McPherson’s finances in March 2013, after a forensic audit suspected irregularities in the records.
In June 2015, Koe was charged with fraud and a warrant for her arrest was issued after she failed to appear in court December.
In February this year, Whitehorse RCMP took her into custody.
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