A former Prince George and District Elizabeth Fry Society financial manager faces sentencing for using two credit cards issued by the non-profit organization to run up $240,000 in personal expenses.
Rhonda Lee Bailey has pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000.
During a hearing on Friday, Crown and defence counsel set out positions on sentencing.
She faces anywhere from a conditional sentence order of two years less a day followed by three years probation to as much as five years in prison.
Conditional sentence orders are served at home while allowing the person to continue working. Probation typically includes a curfew.
Both positions on sentencing include ordering Bailey to pay $240,000 in restitution.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Bailey had been given two corporate credit cards to pay for work-related travel or for purchases for the benefit of the organization.
But in May 2018, 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 said she was only trying to "maintain her children's lifestyle" and, when asked how long it had been going on for, she said a couple of years.
Bailey was terminated from her position the next day. Prince George RCMP was contacted, and an investigation determined that the unauthorized expenditures began in January 2013 and added up to more than 1,000 transactions totalling about $240,000.
Purchases included payments for vacations, flights, hotels, meals, makeup, dog kenneling fees, moving van rentals, clothing and miscellaneous online shopping. The beneficiaries included Bailey and her children.
Bailey admitted to having knowledge of the organization's policy prohibiting use of the credit cards for personal use.
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 fraud created significant fallout for the organization, according to a victim impact statement read into the record.
The impact was described as "devastating, challenging, time consuming to repair and has cast a shadow over the relationship with our funders."
The funds Bailey redirected to herself were to have provided "vital services to vulnerable women, children, youth and families," the statement reads.
Management was sent scrambling to inform funders and created an atmosphere of mistrust.
Bailey's replacement needed to spend many hours to correct the general ledger and create a moving-forward financial plan.
"Her actions completely took the wind out of our sails. It left us adrift wondering how we could recover from this storm," the statement reads.
The organization employs 68 people through 26 programs.
"Individuals who work for this agency not for the high wages but because they believe in the worth of the non-profit sector in addition to the historical work of Elizabeth Fry," the statement reads.
According to a pre-sentence report, Bailey is ashamed and disappointed and had fully intended to pay back the money owed. Her motivation was identified as a worry about appearing to be a "failure or struggling."
A decision on sentencing was adjourned to a later date.
