An Edmonton woman who tried to avoid getting caught for embezzling $530,000 from her employer by claiming she was sleeping with the boss is behind bars.
Elaine Badry, 49, was sentenced to three years in prison Friday after earlier being convicted of fraud over $5,000.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Darlene Acton said it was aggravating that Badry breached the trust of her employer and that the fraud was complicated, went on for more than six years and involved more than 300 transactions.
Acton also ordered Badry to pay $250,000 in restitution.
Badry was found guilty on Dec. 18 after Acton rejected the office worker’s testimony.
Court heard Badry stole $530,000 from Duraguard Fence Ltd. from 2001 to 2007 when she worked for the company doing general office work, residential sales, customer service and processing debit transactions.
She used a machine that processes refunds to credit cards and debit cards to credit funds to herself or to other cards belonging to people associated with her.
Badry claimed she was following the instructions of Duraguard owner Jay Champigny, who was using her to launder company money to avoid paying income tax.
Champigny denied Badry was giving him the money and testified he was “shocked” to learn of what she was doing.
Court heard nobody knows where the money went to.
Acton ruled Badry’s allegation against Champigny made “no sense” and was “totally improbable.”
Acton also noted that Badry became “creative” when she felt she was going to get caught as a result of Champigny’s wife coming in to the office to check out the books.
Carolynne Champigny testified that the day after she discovered someone was stealing from her husband’s company and told him about it, she found a letter at work from Badry saying she was “sleeping with Jay.”
Champigny said she “turned white” and “got really angry” and then realized Badry knew she would find out about the alleged thefts. She had written the letter about the supposed affair in the hope that Champigny would get so upset that she would take the children and leave Jay.
In victim impact statements, the Champignys said the letter caused them “personal pain” and “embarrassment.”
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