One of the women who pleaded guilty to stealing a large sum from the Central Okanagan Hospice Association has been sentenced.
Melanie Gray was sentenced in a Kamloops courtroom Monday to five months in jail, two years of probation and ordered to pay back the money stolen from COHA.
Gray allegedly stole $69,043 from COHA between February 2013 and November 2015 by using the association’s credit card. She pleaded guilty to the charge of fraud over $5,000 Feb. 19.
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 month, 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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