An Abbotsford woman who, along with her spouse, was responsible for 345 fraudulent credit card purchases totalling $80,000 has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Ripy Jubbal, 47, was recently sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster after previously pleading guilty to six counts related to the fraudulent use of credit cards and credit card data.
She was given six and a half months’ credit for time served, leaving her with just under two years in custody.
Jubbal and her spouse, Karmjit Tiwana, 48, initially each faced 22 charges, all in Abbotsford. Tiwana was sentenced in June 2020 to a conditional sentence of two years less a day.
Court documents state that between September 2016 and January 2017 the pair used the identities of 19 different victims to open fraudulent accounts and credit card numbers.
The credit cards were then used for various purchases, including women’s shoes and other goods, which Jubbal sold over Facebook; a trip to Fiji; and the lease of a BMW.
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In one instance, the pair fraudulently purchased a $6,700 trip through a travel agent. As a result, the travel agency was, consistent with the use of credit cards by such merchants, back-charged for the amount of the tickets.
The employee who sold the tickets was then required by her employer to pay the back charge personally, borrowing the money at interest to do so.
As part of her sentence, Jubbal has been ordered to pay back the $6,700.
Jubbal and Tiwana were arrested in January 2017 at their residences on Rainbow Avenue in Abbotsford. Search warrants were executed at their residences and a storage locker.
According to the court documents, among the items seized by police were stolen mail and property stolen from a robbery, a break-in and a vehicle.
Documents, receipts and notebooks contained detailed lists of victims’ personal information and credit cards.
Also found was a stolen driver’s licence that had been altered to include Jubbal’s face.
According to the court documents, Jubbal has a prior criminal history that includes a 2004 fraud conviction in which she was ordered to pay back $17,000 to a victim.
In 2008, she was convicted of fraud, possession of stolen property and breaching her bail conditions.
Another fraud conviction followed in 2009 and again in 2011, when she was also convicted of credit-card and stolen-identity offences and served a 30-month sentence.
Tiwana had no prior criminal record at the time of his sentencing.
During sentencing, Justice Kenneth Ball made note of a 2008 incident in which Jubbal witnessed the gunshot murder of her boyfriend at their townhouse in Surrey. She fled the home by jumping out of a second-storey window.
Previous news stories indicate that the man killed was Sunny Bains. Gangster Raminder “Manny” Bhander was later convicted of second-degree murder in the killing, and Jubbal testified at this trial.
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Ball said Jubbal has been a user of crystal meth since 2007 and was using the drug daily at the time of her most recent offences.
Ball referenced a pre-sentence report in which a forensic psychologist who interviewed Jubbal said she was at a high risk to re-offend and described her as a person “skilled in deceit, and that she shows no genuine remorse for her fraudulent behaviour and the effect that repeated behaviour had on her victims.”
Ball said the offences allowed Jubbal to “live an unearned lifestyle, while depriving victims of their hard-earned cash and credit.”
“The repeated conduct of the offender in fraudulently using credit cards and stolen personal information not only harms individuals, but the community as a whole, in a profound way that damages personal and corporate finance in the community,” he said.
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