A former Prince George and District Elizabeth Fry Society financial manager was sentenced Tuesday to 2 1/2 years in jail for using two credit cards issued by the non-profit organization to run up $240,000 in personal expenses.
Rhonda Lee Bailey, 54, appeared stunned when the decision was issued. With her lawyer taking in the decision from Calgary via videoconferencing, Bailey sat alone before Provincial Court Judge Peter McDermick but with about a dozen friends and family behind her in the gallery,
The outcome was about half the amount Crown counsel had been seeking but significantly more than the conditional sentence order of two years less a day followed by three years of probation her defence counsel had argued for during a hearing in April.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Bailey had been using two corporate credit cards meant to pay for work-related travel or for purchases for the benefit of the organization for personal expenses.
RCMP had determined Bailey used the cards to make more than 1,000 transactions totalling about $240,000 over the course of five years.
The purchases included vacations, flights, hotels, meals, makeup, dog kennel fees, moving van rentals, clothing and miscellaneous online shopping. The beneficiaries included Bailey and her children.
Her scheme came to an end in May 2018 when an audit uncovered missing credit card statements.
A search followed, and they were found in a banker's box underneath Bailey's desk. When the organization's executive director went through the statements, she found 13 suspicious transactions related to travel, groceries and online shopping.
When Bailey was confronted, she retrieved an envelope from her desk and handed it over "upon request" and admitted to improper use of the credit cards and apologized.
Bailey was terminated from her position the next day and RCMP was contacted.
She had held the job since 2006 and had been responsible for reviewing corporate expenses and the organization's accounting system.
She made arbitrary entries into the system related to the expenditures, "to ensure there was no obvious financial deficit," the court was told.
"Ms. Bailey used her financial expertise, her knowledge of the processes, the trust bestowed upon her to continue her crime without detection for a period of five years," the statement reads.
The non-profit social services agency provides support for vulnerable women and girls and employs 68 people through 26 programs.
The discovery that the money had gone missing sent management scrambling to inform funders. Bailey's replacement needed to spend many hours to correct the general ledger and create a moving-forward financial plan.
"All of us wondered what could have been done with the monies and how many more people that were asking for help we could've help," a representative said in a victim impact statement.
In arguing for a conditional sentence, served at home, followed by probation, Bailey's lawyer, David McLeod, proposed a plan that would have seen Bailey repay $158,000 over the course of the five years.
Crown counsel Ian Hay had called the proposal "close to dangerous" and suggested it amounted to a double standard.
"The payment of money will result in no jail and not paying money is jail," Hay had countered. "The people with money to pay for their crimes don't go to jail."
McDermick found defence counsel's position would not adequately denounce Bailey's actions and deter others from committing a similar crime.
But he also noted Bailey pleaded guilty to a count of fraud over $5,000, found she had expressed genuine remorse and said he was struck by the large number of letters of support for her. She was described as loving and selfless, a great friend and helpful, caring and kind.
The judge cited several cases depicting sentences for crimes committed similar circumstance in support of his decision.
Bailey was also ordered to pay $240,000 restitution.
In a statement read out by her lawyer Tuesday, Bailey apologized and said she takes responsibility for what she did.
"I feel ashamed, I regret my actions, I am sorry for causing so much stress for everyone involved," the statement reads.
Bailey was given a chance to hug and say goodbye to each of her supporters before she was led away in handcuffs to begin serving her sentence.
