Maurice Collard, defence lawyer

By Sheldon Spackman

trial avoided

Stay of proceedings declared in alleged fraud case

Nov 4, 2019 | 12:35 PM

A stay of proceedings was declared in Red Deer provincial court on Monday for an Innisfail woman accused of stealing more than $54,000 from her employer over the course of two years.

Pamela Bernard, 38, was charged with 11 counts, including three of fraud exceeding $5,000, two counts of fraud under $5,000, two counts of theft over $5,000, two of theft under $5,000 and falsification of books/documents.

RCMP allege the frauds were committed between September 2015 and 2017 while the suspect was serving as the executive director of a local member association, with the funds misused for personal use.

Defence lawyer Maurice Collard says the decision for a stay of proceedings was made by the Crown.

“That’s up to the Crown and whether or not they had the evidence that they need to bring about a conviction,” explains Collard. “After speaking with them at length and reviewing the disclosure, they did not have a reasonable likelihood of conviction.”

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Pursuant to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Collard points out Bernard is presumed innocent of the charges.

“These allegations will remain just allegations, and she looks forward to putting them behind her, and restoring her reputation in regards to this unfortunate set of circumstances that has been brought upon her.”

The Crown has up to one year to lift the stay of proceedings if they so choose.