One of the women accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the Central Okanagan Hospice Association has pleaded guilty.
Melanie Gray, who COHA alleged stole $69,043 between February 2013 and November 2015 by using the association’s credit card made a brief appearance in a Kamloops courtroom Feb. 19, where she pleaded guilty to the charge of theft over $5,000. She is scheduled for a final decision on the case March. 5.
Her co-accused Susan Steen, 71, is scheduled to plead guilty to similar charges in May, she had previously been scheduled to enter a guilty plea at a Vancouver courtroom last week, but the matter was deferred.
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Court documents indicate that on Sept. 12, 2012, Steen allegedly defrauded COHA of $71 by making a false claim for a cellphone expense. She is also accused of stealing upward of $109,000 from COHA between July 2012 and April 2016, by using the hospice’s credit card.
Steen was also sentenced to four months in jail and two years of probation for a similar crime in Nanaimo last month. .
Steen pleaded guilty in April 2018 to a charge of fraud and theft, stemming from a complaint by the Nanaimo Community Hospice Society, where she had been employed as an executive director.
Steen had allegedly misused $6,000 from that non-profit’s credit card. She was fired in June 2017, which was roughly six months after she was hired, for the discrepancy.
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