A woman convicted of defrauding a local housing co-op of more than $40,000 was sent to jail for 15 months on Monday.
Tamara Lynne Valk was sentenced to the jail term and an additional 18 months of probation after pleading guilty to a single count of fraud.
Valk’s fraud took place for well over a year when she acted as treasurer of the Liberton Housing Co-operative.
The young woman was living in the housing complex, which offers below-market rents with the help of government grants.
On Oct. 14, 2008 the president of the co-op noticed some irregularities with the financial statements and took his concerns to the RCMP.
A closer RCMP investigation revealed Valk had written more than 20 cheques to herself using the co-operative’s accounts.
In total she took $37,572.89 from the co-operative and deposited it into her own accounts.
For a six-month period Valk also took rent cheques from another tenant and credited the amount to her own rent instead.
Valk’s actual rent was never paid during those six months, adding another nearly $4,000 to her deception.
One other person played a minor role in the fraud, but took only $300, which she was ordered to repay after pleading guilty to the charges last spring.
Valk first entered the guilty plea in September last year, but her sentencing was put over until at first November and then January, for a pre-sentence report.
In her victim impact statement, current Liberton Housing Co-operative president Susan Dixon said Valk’s actions led to intense scrutiny from the government agencies that support the housing complex. The organization was dangerously close to losing its grants, she said.
“We endured a forensic inspection by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and were in jeopardy of losing the subsidies that permit the co-op to offer affordable housing to our members.”
Dixon said sorting out the mess left her physically and emotionally drained.
“I suffered from anxiety and loss of sleep, not to mention the onerous task of balancing the investigation with my full-time job.”
Defence lawyer Charles Davison pleaded with the court to consider making a rare exception for Valk and have her serve her sentence in the community on house arrest rather than in jail.
Davison conceded that a fraud of this size, combined with a previous conviction Valk had on her record, was enough to warrant jail in most cases, but he asked the judge to consider Valk’s seven-year-old son.
He also noted she was several weeks pregnant.
Davison said Valk was the sole provider for the young boy and also encouraged Judge Jeanne Burch to consider his client’s guilty plea.
“She made a full confession at the time of her arrest and she never intended to take it to trial.”
Burch chided Valk for her actions which she said worked in complete opposition to the entire spirit of a co-operative.
“It is called a co-op because each person leans on the others.”
Burch said she was particularly disturbed that Valk seemed to be absconding with the funds simply because she could, rather than to fill a specific need like a drug or gambling issue.
“It really comes down to pure greed,” she said. ”You simply wanted the money.”
The co-op’s insurers reimbursed them for the fraudulent cheques Valk wrote, but it is still out the rent she didn’t pay.
Burch ordered Valk to repay the funds to both the co-op and their insurers as part of her probation order.
Davison said it would be difficult for Valk to repay the money, especially with a serious conviction on her record. He asked that the full total not be part of the probation period.
The probation order will require her to pay $200 a month for the length of her probation. After that the remaining balance will be transferred to a compensation order.
If the full amount had been placed on her probation order and she failed to pay, she could have been convicted of breaching a probation order, adding to her criminal record.
