BRANDON — The former chief administrative officer of a rural municipality will spend the next year and a half under house arrest for stealing $30,000 from Carberry’s curling club and trying to pay it back with taxpayers’ money.
Trisha Dawn Fraser, 36, had pleaded guilty to theft over $5,000. An RCMP investigation last year concluded that she stole the cash when she was volunteering as treasurer of the club. After she left, and while working as CAO for the RM of North Cypress-Langford, Fraser used unauthorized funds from the municipality to reimburse the curling club.
In sentencing Fraser on Aug. 30, Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said she should be given credit for taking responsibility and pleading guilty, but noted the amount of money stolen was significant.
The Carberry Plains Recreation Centre in Carberry. As treasurer of the curling club, Trisha Dawn Fraser stole $30,000 over the course of a year. (Michele McDougall / The Brandon Sun)
The judge reminded Fraser her actions will affect her two young children.
“In no way should you be telling yourself or allowing yourself to think that in any way this benefited your children or was for the benefit of your children,” Hewitt-Michta said. “You set an absolutely horrendous example for them and now they will suffer the impact (and) the consequences along with you.”
Crown attorney Ron Toews had told court a pre-sentence report, for which Fraser was interviewed, showed she had a “selfish” attitude.
“What we have is a case where the accused looked her victims in the eye at every curling event, every community event and she would do so knowing that she had stolen their money — money that they entrusted with her at one point, money of her employer, money that was paid by taxpayers of the community that she continues to reside in,” Toews said.
Fraser had said she stole the money after her divorce left her with legal fees and she struggled to support her children.
In the report, Fraser said the club was willing to let her pay it back, but the RM decided to contact the police and pursue charges. She described her actions as “being up front” and “trusting the wrong people.”
Toews said she was deflecting blame onto the community.
“I would suggest that that’s quite a concerning comment in the sense that it’s upside-down logic, that the right people trusted her, and she violated that trust,” he said.
He noted she said she had received “mean” comments from community members after she was charged.
“I’m not sure why she would seem to be surprised as she seems to be about her receiving some negative comments from community members,” Toews said. “It’s because she violated the trust of people that she shared a community with and directly affected their lives.”
Defence lawyer Neil Steen told court his client had been married to a man who was verbally abusive and irresponsible with money and left Fraser and her children in 2022.
“To be clear, those decisions were so that she could pay for things like her children’s activities and feed her children,” Steen said, adding Fraser made a mistake by not seeking help.
She was able to pay back the money with the help of her family, he said.
He said when Fraser was confronted by police about the cheque to the curling club from the municipality, she said the reeve of the RM wasn’t involved.
“I think it’s pretty clear that this is someone who didn’t want to get other people into trouble,” Steen said.
— Brandon Sun