Two-and-a-half years after her original trial date, a former bookkeeper accused of defrauding a Burnaby school of $66,000 was in B.C. provincial court to stand trial this week.
Jodi Fingarsen, a former bookkeeper at Alpha Secondary, was charged with fraud over $5,000 in February 2013 for allegedly depositing third-party cheques made out to vendors owed money by the school into her own personal account between 2008 and 2010.
Fingarsen is also accused of fraud over $5,000 in relation to her work as an administrative assistant between 2010 and 2012 at the Altus Group, a Vancouver real estate consulting company.
She originally pleaded not guilty, and her case was set for trial in February 2014.
By Feb. 17, 2014, however, she had changed her mind and pleaded guilty instead. But that plea was thrown out at a sentencing hearing four months later by a provincial court judge who said the former bookkeeper hadn’t actually acknowledged guilt.
Fingarsen was then scheduled five times over the next 12 months to plead guilty before she flip-flopped again in June 2015 and entered a not-guilty plea.
Her trial was delayed again in February because of a scheduling conflict for her lawyer, John Banks, who was involved in a jury trial that took longer than expected.
Fingarsen’s trial, before Provincial Court Judge Joseph Galati, finally began Wednesday with testimony from retired Burnaby school district accounting audit officer Lynda Kerr.
The Crown plans to call 19 witnesses, according to Crown counsel Jennifer Horneland, including police investigators, bank officials, school district officials and staff working at Alpha secondary during Fingarsen’s employment there.
The trial is scheduled to last until Oct. 21.
Keep an eye on www.burnabynow.com for more information.
