Oliver, B.C. woman has become town ‘pariah’ since admitting to stealing $10K from school fund

A woman who stole at least $10,000 from an Oliver Elementary School fund won’t spend any time behind bars for her crime but has been in a prison of her own making for years.

Belinda Yorke pleaded guilty to theft over $5,000 in February 2020 and on Friday finally found out the cost of that act.  B.C. Supreme Court Justice Harry Slade gave her a two-years-less-one-day conditional sentence, followed by a probation order of one year.

For the duration, she will have to report to a probation officer, must complete intake assessment for treatment programs as directed by her probation officer, she must apologize to the Parent Advisory Committee, in person or by letter.

4:40 Parents looking for reassurance as B.C. kids head back to school

There will also be a restitution order to the PAC for the $10,000-plus she stole, but it’s unlikely she will ever have to pay it.

“The court recognizes Ms. Yorke’s circumstances, bordering on poverty, and would decline to assign (her) an impossible task,” Slade said. If she were to come into some money, however, then the repayment would kick in.

In sentencing, Slade took into account Yorke’s circumstances. This, he said, was not to “excuse the conduct but to offer insight or explanation about how such a thing could occur for a person who had no criminal involvement or record.”

Yorke’s current condition, he explained,  is far from ideal. She has Fibromyalgia, suffered renal failure, has diabetes and an opioid addiction from medications prescribed to her to alleviate pain. She also has bipolar disorder.

She’s a caregiver not only to her 12-year-old son, but also to her father and her stepmother. Her father has COPD and her stepmother has lost mobility on one side.

And she’s continually immersed in the shame caused by her actions, she said.

“Living in a small town, I have been made aware of my actions any minute of every day,” Yorke, who was the treasurer of the PAC at the time of the theft, said before the judge handed down the decision.

“I don’t leave the house unless I have to … for the last three years since this was publicized I have been housebound with the exceptions of the three errands I run every day.”

She indicated that she understands the contempt that’s been directed at her, but noted her child has also suffered from community judgment by those who have heard of her crime.

“I can’t look at myself in the mirror. For what I’ve done, there will never be forgiveness and I will never move on from it. I am extremely apologetic and remorseful.”

Yorke’s defence lawyer, Michael Patterson, said “she’s made herself a pariah,” in committing the crime.

Yorke stole from the PAC over and over again between 2016 and 2018 when she was caught.

In all,  Crown counsel John Swanson said Yorke is believed to have stolen $10,698.

1:58 Thousands of dollars allegedly embezzled from second Okanagan PAC

In June 2016, she was elected to the position of treasurer for Oliver school’s PAC, Crown counsel John Swanson said.

She remained in that role until she resigned in January 2018, following the discovery of numerous fraudulent transactions where she wrote cheques to herself or her husband or failed to deposit cash collected at fundraising events into PAC accounts.

Swanson said Yorke had access to a Valley First Credit Union account for the PAC and access to a separate gaming account, also for the PAC, where provincial gaming grants were deposited. She was also responsible for depositing all cash for numerous fundraising events through the school year held by the PAC.

Some of the fundraising events were relatively small, “like “hot dog sales, cookie dough sales or pop sales at lunch,” Swanson said. “Those would almost be exclusively cash transactions.”

In addition to those transactions, the PAC also had a big yearly fundraiser where there was usually an influx of cash and checks.

To keep on top of it all, the PAC had regular meetings at which Yorke was expected to advise other members of the executive about the financial status of the  PAC.

Swanson said and that’s when her actions started to raise suspicions.

2:34 Interior Health loosens COVID-19 restrictions for vaccinated people

When she was asked questions by other members of the PAC executive, “she failed to give detailed records or lied to them about the amount in the accounts,” he said.

In the summer of 2017, she ran the account down to the point where there was only $154 left, but Swanson said she told her fellow PAC executive members it had several thousand dollars in it.

In January 2018, one of the PAC members became suspicious when the details came to light and she went to the bank and got copies of the bank statements.

2:03 Mental Health Monday: Coping with back to office anxiety

That’s when they discovered the PAC accounts were not the same as Yorke said at the most recent meeting.

“The member analyzed and found fraudulent withdrawals,” he said. They also realized that cheques from fundraising weren’t going into the accounts.

“(The PAC member) brought thefts to other members of PAC, the school exec, principal and RCMP … the RCMP then created a criminal investigation in 2018 and the same time the provincial gaming policy enforcement branch then assigned a forensic accountant to the gaming account which in turn led to forensic audit of gaming account,” he said.

All investigations found multiple incidents of theft or fraudulent behaviour.